The Indian government has approved a US$178mn loan to Tanzania for the implementation of water projects in an attempt to help alleviate water scarcity in the East African country
The Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Corporation (DAWASCO) said it would use the money to end water shortage in the city, which has an intermittent water problem.
DAWASCO acting director of technical services, Romanus Mwang'ingo, said, “We expect to end water scarcity by 2014. Once we start implementing the project, our program will go hand in hand with the installation of more efficient water pumps at both upper and lower Ruvu stations.”
Mwang'ingo added that in order to cope with the growing demand, DAWASCO was expected to increase the production capacity of the Upper Ruvu plant to 196,000 cu m from the current 82,000 cu m a day.
He said that the Upper Ruvu establishment was built in 1959 and renovated in 1990 to increase its capacity, but since then no other renovations have been done while the population it serves has dramatically increased.
“Due to the low capacity of our systems, there has been a huge scarcity of water supply to Dar es Salaam residents. Some get water twice a week while others do not get it at all,” Mwang'ingo said.
He stressed that the credit from the government of India will help DAWASA increase the capacity of the Upper Ruvu station as well as to construct new pipelines which will have the capacity to carry new volumes since the station will have a new production capacity.
