Forum to discuss Tanzania’s water management issues

Dar es Salaam. The Ministry of water in collaboration with the 2030 Water Resource Group Tanzania Partnership will hold a two-day multi-sectoral forum on October 4 and 5 to discuss Tanzania’s water management issues.

The forum will draw participants from the private sector, government and civil society organizations, according to a statement issued on Monday October 2.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Prof Kitila Mkumbo, said the two-day event will start with the launching of the formal National Multi-Sectoral Water Resources Management Forum.

He said; “People need to know that Tanzania is one of the countries that have abundant water resources but are subject to competing demands. So, use of such forums will help to get an agreed agenda to address such competitions and thereby support sustainable growth.”

The country is endowed with freshwater sources including rivers, springs, lakes, wetlands, and aquifers. However, these resources are unevenly distributed in time and space.

The director of water resources in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Mr Hamza Sadiki said that the average volume of renewable freshwater per capita per year has been declining from 2,300 cubic metres in 2002 to 1,952 cubic metres in 2015.

The figure is projected to further decline to 1,500 cubic metres by 2025.

“If water resources are not well managed, they will put the country within the water-stressed category which is below 1,700 cubic metres per capita and business as usual will further put Tanzania in water–scarce category,” he warned.

Read: Is Tanzania’s stand on Nile water in jeopardy?

The country representative for 2030 WRG, Mr Sigalla cited a parliament hansard that says these water challenges were alerted more than half a century ago by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the then Prime Minister of Tanganyika in 1958.

Mwalimu Nyerere was addressing the 34th Session of Parliament, while discussing the Water Bill.