PROPOSED water and irrigation projects’ budget for the next fiscal year has increased by five per cent, with the ministry asking the National Assembly to endorse 727.3bn/- budget.
Water Minister Engineer Isack Kamwelwe
told the house that out of the proposed budget, 673bn/-, an increase
from this fiscal year’s 643.7bn/-, will be spent in implementing
development projects in water and irrigation.
The minister further requested the
parliament to approve 24.4bn/- for recurrent expenditures. Engineer
Kamwelwe said 66 per cent of the sought development budget for the
2018/19 (443.2bn) will come from the government’s own sources and the
remaining 34 per cent, 229bn/- from donors.
He told the Members of the Parliament
that the ministry was undertaking a number of projects to improve water
availability and accessibility in the country. Rural water projects were
implemented through the Rural Water Sector Development Programme, which
involves construction of new projects, repair and expansion of the
existing projects.
By last March, 1,493 projects were
implemented, benefiting 21,321,500 rural residents. Implementation of
the other 366 projects is still underway at different stages.
However, the minister said execution of
the projects faced some challenges, including lack of enough funds,
noting that out of 623.6bn/- for the development in 2017/18, only
350bn/- had been received by last March.
In addressing this challenge, he said,
the government continues with efforts to look for funds to improve water
services, among others, convincing development partners who have shown
interest to support water projects.
In line with this, the government was
disappointed with the low response from the private sector in the
country to invest in water and irrigation sector.
“Despite the huge demand to improve
water and irrigation services, the contribution of the private sector is
still not satisfactory,” he stated, noting that the government has
continually taken several steps to encourage participation of the
private sector.
He mentioned other challenges as reduced
sources of water, few experts in the sector, destruction of water and
irrigation infrastructures and failure by the government institutions to
settle their water bills. Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture,
Livestock and Water aired its views on the implementation of the
ministry’s budget for 2017/18 financial year.
Upon its assessment, the committee said
the government has continued to allocate more funds from its own sources
for financing development projects and commended the move. The
committee’s chairman Mahmoud Mgimwa said the proposed ministry’s budget
for 2018/19 is expected to finance implementation of projects that will
speed up availability of clean and safe water in a bid to reach the 2025
National Development Vision.
However, the committee noted that
estimated expenditure in the 2018/19 budget does not meet huge water
demand as stipulated in the first and second phase of the Five-Year
National Development Strategic Plan.
The document has mentioned water as
among priorities in improving economy, particularly by contributing to
the generation of electricity, developing irrigation, livestock keeping,
industries, transport and reducing poverty.
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