Now villagers to quench thirst …

DAILY NEWS Reporter in Mwanza

• When friends put money where it matters

TANZANIA will soon forget her perennial water woes following a hefty injection of some $750m (over 1.6tril/-) from development partners for various water projects in 17 regions including Zanzibar.

President John Magufuli said his government was seriously looking forward to making sure all villages surrounding Lake Victoria were connected to potable water, ridding villagers of a host of health hazards, mostly water-borne ailments.

He particularly thanked India whose president recently endorsed $500m (about 1.1tril/-) in financial support that would help con nect at least 95 per cent of urban households to water and 85 per cent in rural settlements across the country by 2025.

“I sincerely thank the African Development Bank (AfDB) for supporting water projects in Sengerema district … which will receive more than 22 million litres when the project is completed come 2030 … connecting more than 138,000 population,” the President said.

Dr Magufuli was speaking shortly before he officially inaugurated the 23bn/- Sengerema water project that will supply more than 90,000 members of the population here with clean water, thanks to the African Development Bank (AfDB), which has doled out more than 80 per cent of the project funds.

The project under Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Project (LVWATSAN) was implemented by the Mwanza Urban Water and Sanitation Authority (MWAUWASA) through the facilitation of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC).

The president said he was aware of the water problem the district was facing at the time he lived there as a junior civil servant in the early 1980s -- when the area received just two million litres of water to cater for around 30 per cent of the population then.

He challenged the residents and authorities to keep the project on track, even as they should also maintain it and deal with illegal fishing within Lake Victoria waters since such malpractices contributed to water pollution, causing health complications such as cancer.

Making a brief presentation, the AfDB country representative, Mr Godfrey Kaijage, said his institution had released $109 with Tanzania getting $26 million, and that at least 87 per cent of the funds had since been released.

The Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) Executive Secretary, Dr Ali Machano, said the Sengerema Water project was part of 40 such projects being implemented in 17 regions of the East African member states commending Dr Magufuli for his patronage spirit when he was EAC head.

“We remain hopeful that all these projects would be fully completed by December this year while we look to more funding from EFDB for scaling them up,” said Dr Machano.

The Minister for Water, Eng. Gerson Lwenge, said current trends show that water consumers were increasingly paying all overdue water bills, citing a number of institutions that had come forward to settle outstanding bills.