Africa-Press – Tanzania. ZANZIBAR Water Authority (ZAWA) has embarked on sweeping strategies to guarantee reliable water supply to the public and transform itself into profitability.
ZAWA Director General Dr, Salha Mohammed Kassim, speaking to the ‘Daily News’ here on Monday, attributed Zanzibar water woes to rundown water supply network that requires total overhaul.
She said repairs and extension of water network and infrastructure, including construction of water wells and reservoirs as well as procurement of new water pumps, are some of the tactics to improve water services in the islands. Dr Kassim admitted that there is inadequate supply of clean and safe water to Zanzibar residents, saying the authority’s coverage remains less than 40 per cent.
“There is a serious water problem in Zanzibar; we cover less than 40 per cent,” she said.
With over 100 faulty water pumps, ZAWA’s capacity to produce and supply water remains too minimal to meet the growing demand of over 1.7 million islanders, said Dr Kassim.
“We have many dormant water wells due to defective pumps; and we don’t have a single pump in store for replacement,” she said, adding that even the decrepit asbestos water pipelines, which burst routinely, are a serious challenge.
ZAWA has started an overhaul of the entire water system in Unguja’s Urban West region and plans are underway to construct more water wells.
The director said that 30 water wells in Unguja and Pemba are in different stages of drilling, including pump installation, hinting that the authority is also revamping 33 wells, which had never worked since their construction due to lack of pumps.
She described construction of water tanks as the panacea to the myriad of water woes in the country, expressing optimism over the Covid-19 fund allocation, which will be directed into construction of new water wells and extension of water supply network.
The authority also plans to acquire own water well drilling machine to reduce costs. ZAWA is already in talks with Dar es Salaambased Water Institute (WI) over the supply of water management software in its commitment to embrace technology for effective and efficient management of water resource.
The authority plans to install pre-paid and smart meters to facilitate apt billing of water users. The installation of 100 meters to institutional customers is expected to increase the authority’s monthly revenue by 100m/-, at an average of 1m/- per customer, according to ZAWA Commercial and Customer Service Director, Ms Kazija Mussa Msheba.
Currently, ZAWA monthly collections fluctuate between 300m/- and 400m/-, although the utility firm was hard hit by Covid-19, as some of its customers in the hospitality industry dropped water consumption by twothirds.
“We have one of our customers who used to pay 15m/- but the bill dropped to a mere 5m/ monthly, due to Covid,” said Ms Kazija.
The commercial director said the authority will soon embark on customer mapping survey to identify all water users in the country, decrying massive water theft in the country.
“Only 16 per cent of our 100,000 customers have water meters; yet there is huge meters bypass to cheat in the billing,” said the business chief, decrying difficulties in settlement of water bills by, especially government institutions.
She said the authority has 18bn/- in outstanding water bills. Hardly 100,000 households, accounting for 25 per cent of the estimated 400,000 households in Unguja and Pemba, are registered ZAWA customers. And, 84 per cent—84,000 customers—pay a flat rate monthly bill of 4,000/-, which Engineer Salha said some are reluctant to pay.
“We firmly believe that once we install water meters for all our customers and charge accordingly, ZAWA will generate sufficient revenues to make profit and pay dividend to the government,” Engineer Salha assured.
