It’s all joy as firm hands over water scheme

MUGINI JACOB in Musoma

Serengeti District Commissioner, Nurdin Babu, (right) and Singita Grumeti Fund Head of Community Outreach Programme, Frida Mollel ( left) help a resident of Iharara village, Prisca Moremi, to carry a bucket of water during the official handing over of a water project. (Photo: Mugini Jacob)

MORE than 1,500 residents of Iharara village in Serengeti District have access to clean drinking water near their homes, thanks to the Singita Grumeti Fund for supporting implementation of a multimillion- shillings water project.

The 96.6m/- project was designed to end water problem that has been facing students and teachers of Issenye Secondary School at Iharara village. Currently, the school has more than 300 students and teachers who now have access to clean water. Iharara villagers, especially women, are also seeing the project as a huge relief.

“I can’t believe that we now have clean water near our homes. In the past we used to spend long hours looking for water, and the situation was worse during dry periods,” said Prisca Moremi. She said having access to clean water will transform the standard of living of the villagers.

“We will now have more time to engage in income generating activities,” she explained. “This project has brought joy. We used to undergo a lot of hardship in search of drinking water. We no longer have to walk long distances as the water is right here in our village.

” Iharara village Chairman, Goroboni Mahega, said implementation of the project was a remarkable achievement for the village. “This is a huge project in Serengeti District and we thank Singita Grumeti Fund for their support. I also thank Iharara villagers for the cooperation they gave throughout the implementation of the project.

Our responsibility now is to safeguard this project,” he said on Monday this week during the official handing over of the project. Issenye Secondary School second master, Ezekiel Onderi, said successful implementation of the project has made water problems a thing of the past.

“Lack of water was a big problem for the school. Thanks to the project, students no longer have to waste their valuable time for studies looking for clean water.

The water tanks are full of clean water and we are very grateful,” he said. Frida Mollel, the Singita Grumeti Fund Head of Community Outreach Programme, said implementation of the project involved construction of two water collection stations, a water tank with the capacity to accommodate 50,000 litres, several water storage tanks with a capacity of holding 20,000 litres for Issenye Secondary School and a cattle trough, among other things.

The Singita Grumeti Fund contributed 82.15 per cent of the total cost while Issenye Secondary School and Iharara villagers contributed 15 per cent and 2.85 per cent respectively. “The primary aim is to alleviate water problem at Iharara village and Issenye Secondary School.

The project will be serving more than 1,500 villagers, 500 students and teachers and more than 2,000 livestock,” Mollel said. Singita Grumeti Fund Director, Stephen Cunliffe, handed over the project to the Serengeti District Commissioner (DC), Nurdin Babu who thanked the Fund for the generous donation which enabled the implementation of the project.

He appealed to other investors operating in the district to learn and start supporting local development. He said that Serengeti District has large companies but they do not give back part of their profits to support local development.

“Singita Grumeti Fund is indeed helping us and I support them 100 per cent. Our citizens will now be getting clean water near their homes.

This will go a long way in improving their standard of living,” Babu said. He implored the Iharara water users association to protect the water source as this is will be of great benefit not just for today’s generation but also for other generations to come.