AFRICA NEEDS TO DO MORE ON AVAILABILITY OF WATER

An estimated 2 billion people worldwide rely on unsafe sources for their drinking water. The situation is likely to get much worse before it gets better, as statistics show that clean and safe water is becoming scarcer by the day.

In most of sub-Saharan Africa, the situation is especially dire in rural areas, where women still trek long distances in search of the life-sustaining liquid.

Most of the water used in such areas comes from shallow wells, and is usually nothing more than a muddy mixture whose safety cannot be guaranteed.

Official statistics on the availability of clean, safe drinking water in rural areas are highly unrealistic, and do not reflect the situation on the ground.

There is also an acute shortage of clean water in urban areas, thanks to a rapid population increase and unplanned development. Getting clean water is a daily uphill struggle for the vast majority of people living in cities on the continent.

The upgrading of water supply networks in urban areas is not commensurate with the rate of population increase as cash-strapped authorities struggle to serve burgeoning populations with little or no success.

Unless governments substantially increase budgets for the development of their respective water sectors and encourage investment, there is no hope that things will get any better.

For clean water to be supplied to consumers, its sources must be protected and sustained. Unfortunately, this is not the case as water sources continue to be destroyed with wanton abandon across the continent.

People clear whole forests for timber or to make way for farming and settlements, oblivious to the fact that doing so is akin to destroying their lives and those of future generations.

While Africans look up to their governments to provide solutions to their water problems, they too have a role to play in protecting water sources because water is life.

PRIORITISE VALUE ADDITION

Only a tiny fraction of fruits and vegetables produced in Tanzania are processed and packaged in line with internationally accepted standards. This explains why the country is still unable to export substantial quantities of fruits and vegetables despite the best efforts of its farmers.

Lack of processing capacity coupled with poor transport infrastructure means that tens of thousands of tonnes of fruits and vegetables go to waste annually.

It is unfortunate that the fruit processing and packaging industry is still struggling to attract serious investors in spite of the high quality of fruits produced in various parts of the country. Fruits such as bananas, oranges, pears, pineapples and tangerines produced in Tanzania can easily compete, quality-wise, with the very best produced elsewhere on the continent.

The only shortcoming is that no value is added to our produce in terms of processing and packaging, which explains why most supermarkets stock imported fruits and fruit products. Consumers prefer these products to Tanzanian produce for the simple reason that they have been properly processed and packaged.

Fruit farmers should be encouraged to form groups that will help them to add value to their produce and make their work more profitable.