New report gives poor picture of water situation

 

Women draw water from a shallow well. A new report shows that 89 per cent of Tanzanians collect water for their daily needs from public sources, a task that can take an hour or more, which is twice the official target of 30 minutes. PHOTO | FILE 

By  The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

Despite a threefold increase in per capita expenditure on water between 2000 and 2012, access to clean water sources has not improved; in fact, the coverage rate has decreased slightly over this period, according to the findings.

Dar es Salaam. New findings reveal that access to clean water in Tanzania has either stagnated or declined over the past two decades despite significant investments.

The findings released in Dar es Salaam yesterday by Twaweza, a citizen-centred initiative, focusing on large-scale change in East Africa, show that 89 per cent of Tanzanians collect water for their daily needs from public sources, a task that can take an hour or more, which is twice the official target of 30 minutes.

“Compared with huge investments in the water sector in recent years, the small decrease in access to clean and safe water is troubling,” said Mr Rakesh Rajani, head of Twaweza.

He added: “If Big Results Now targets are to be achieved, we need an urgent evaluation of what has gone wrong and what has happened to the funds so that every citizen can enjoy their right to clean and safe water.”

Data from Twaweza’s Sauti za Wananchi mobile phone survey shows that access to clean water is seen as one of the most serious problems facing Tanzania today.

Other serious service delivery problems cited by large numbers of Tanzanians included problems with health services (30 per cent) and education (24 per cent). The percentage of people in Africa using clean and safe water for drinking has increased for most countries since comparable statistics began to be collected – from 49 per cent in 1990 to 63 per cent in 2011.

This primarily reflects increases in access for rural citizens, which has risen from 35 per cent to 51 per cent.

However, the data for Tanzania tells a different story, show the findings indicating that in the past two decades access has declined slightly from 55 per cent to 53 per cent and for rural citizens from 46 per cent to 44 per cent.

The report, titled Money Flows, Water Trickles—Challenges of Access to Clean Water in Tanzania, says that over the 10 year period of 1995-2005, Tanzania received $57 per capita in aid flows earmarked for water but coverage fell by 1 per cent while Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda all received considerably less aid but managed to improve their coverage significantly.

Despite a threefold increase in per capita expenditure on water between 2000 and 2012, access to clean water sources has not improved; in fact, the coverage rate has decreased slightly over this period, according to the findings.

“The fact that there is no positive relationship between expenditure and service delivery in the water sector in Tanzania raises serious questions about policy choices and accountability,” show the findings.

The findings further indicate that sizable additional funds were budgeted and disbursed over recent years, posing the question where did all this money go and how is it that access did not improve?