Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE government has signed performance based contracts with directors of nine water board basins countrywide which will be used to determine efficiency of the country’s water sources for the period of one year.
The contracts were signed between the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Eng Anthony Sanga and Directors of nine water basins at an event which was also attended by Deputy Permanent Secretary, Eng Nadhifa Kemikimba and other top officials in the ministry.
Speaking prior to signing of the documents, Eng Sanga directed the heads of water basins to ensure that they put up proper strategies that can avert the impacts of climate changes.
He further underscored the need for rain harvesting so that soft water from rain was being preserved to save the country during the drought season. “Rain should be considered as an opportunity instead of leaving that water to go into the sea to become salt water,” he said.
Regarding climate change, Eng Sanga said it was high time directors of the water basins assessed themselves on what happened this year in order to avoid similar difficulties in future.
He also asked them to put up plans for protecting water sources by identifying and demarcating the sources as protected areas so tha they are used for intended purposes.
”We are yet to gazette many areas so that they are protected by the legislation, and I call upon all directors of the water basins to jointly work with other related institutions like the Tanzania National Parks Authority ( (TANAPA) and Tanzania Forests Services Agency ( (TFS),” added Eng Sanga.
Tanzania is often portrayed as a water surplus country due to the presence of large water bodies but their levels have been reportedly slowing.
The legislation devolves water resources management to basin level entities. Thus, Tanzania is divided into nine River /Lake basins namely: Pangani, Rufiji, Lake Victoria, Wami Ruvu, Lake Nyasa, Lake Rukwa Central Basin, Lake Tanganyika, and Ruvuma.
However, population and economic growth, along with increased climate variability are currently exacerbating water stresses in many Basins.
Speaking at the event, the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the ministry asked the directors of water basins to honor the contracts obligations.
“You need to perfectly discharge your duties because we don’t want to see top leaders like the Prime Minister performing duties that ought to be done by subordinates,” said Eng Kemikimba.
Highlighting the water capacity in Wami Ruvu, the basin’s Acting director, Elibariki Mmasy said the water cubic liters in the basin had dropped, saying more efforts were however being done to ensure that there was availability of water at household level and other important projects.
He said his team at Wami Ruvu was well prepared to implement the directives by the ministry insisting that the major role was to protect water from being lost.
“Water is a precious liquid which is consumed by everybody on a daily basis, therefore, our responsibility is to make sure that we protect that liquid,” he said.
Earlier, the Director of Water Resources in the ministry, Dr George Lugomela said this was the second time the ministry was signing efficiency contracts with directors of the nine basins.
“An assessment which was conducted in August this year indicated that performance of the basins had increased from 52.2percent in 2019/20 to about 75.2percent,” he noted.
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