Zanzibar, the tropical archipelago off Tanzania’s coast that has long been one of East Africa’s most beloved tourist destinations, is deploying drone technology in an ambitious new campaign to eliminate malaria from its islands by 2028. The Zanzibar Malaria Elimination Programme, in partnership with the World Health Organisation and a consortium of international research institutions, this week launched a pilot programme that will see autonomous drones spraying larvicide across hundreds of hectares of mangrove swamps, rice paddies, and seasonal wetlands.
Malaria has haunted Zanzibar for generations. Despite decades of bed net distribution, indoor residual spraying, and public health education campaigns, the islands continue to record thousands of cases every year, particularly in the rural northern districts where standing water provides ideal breeding conditions for the Anopheles mosquito. Children under five and pregnant women remain the most vulnerable groups, and the disease continues to place a measurable drag on the islands economic productivity.
The drone programme represents a significant departure from previous approaches. Each drone can cover up to fifteen hectares per hour — work that would take a ground spraying team an entire day to complete — and can access marshy terrain that would be impassable for human operators. Crucially, the drones are equipped with multispectral cameras that allow operators to identify water bodies with the greatest mosquito breeding potential. The larvicide being used — a naturally occurring bacterium known as Bti — is harmless to humans, animals, and beneficial insects.
Health officials say that if the pilot phase proves successful, the drone programme could be expanded to cover the entire archipelago within eighteen months. The long-term goal is to interrupt all local transmission of malaria on the islands — a feat that no sub-Saharan African jurisdiction of comparable size has yet achieved. Officials say malaria-free Zanzibar would be not just a public health triumph but an economic transformation, removing a barrier that has deterred investment and kept families trapped in cycles of preventable illness for far too long.