Govt to settle over 13bn/- water debts

By The guardian reporter

Minister for Water, Prof Jumanne Magembe

The Minister for Water Prof Jumanne Magembe has assured all urban water authorities in the country that the accumulated government debts amounting 13.6bn/- will be settled through budgetary allocations in the 2014/15 financial year.

Speaking during the launch of new water project in Dodoma at the weekend Prof Magembe said that all water debts accumulated by public institutions would be settled through deduction of the budgets of the responsible institutions from the treasury.


The minister clarified that the public institution would be paid directly by the treasury in order to ensure financial accountability.

“Each public institution is required to pay water uts debts from its budget allocated by the treasury with effect from this financial year,” he said.

The minister also said that the same modality would be used to settle debts owed to Dodoma Urban Water and Sewerage Authority (Duwawsa) now amounting to over 800m/-. According to him, his ministry will work closely collaboration with the Ministry of Finance to implement the programme of settling the multi-billion shillings debts.

“Each public institution will effect payment of water bills through funds approved and paid directly by the treasury with effect from this financial year,” Prof Magembe said.

He also said Duwasa was in the process of implementing water supply expansion project by taping the Mzakwe sources for supply to Dodoma urban areas.
The giant project worth $43m (78bn/-) is supported by the government of Korea and is targeting to expand water supply in Dodoma Municipality from 31 million litres to 61 million litres.

The minister further said that the project of taping water from Chemba area in Kondoa for distribution to Dodoma University was in the preparatory stage with the hiring of a consultant.

For his part, the Director General of Duwasa Peter Mokiwa said that the authority had been working hard to improve water service delivery in the country’s designated capital but the only challenge was nonpayment of debts by government institutions.

Mokiwa listed other challenges as vandalism whereby some people have been taking away water pipes and other equipment for sales as scraps and inefficient collection of bills. The Duwasa Secretary General pleaded to the government for smooth settlement of debts.

For his part the Duwasa manager for infrastructure development, Eng Samwel
Kiteneka said they had a plan for improving electronic billing system in order to ensure effective collection of revenue and improved service delivery.
Eng Kiteneka said at the moment drilled water had been complementing to water supply shortage in urban areas of Dodoma. 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN