ITILIMA District Commissioner, Mr Benson Kilangi, is now seeking the Ministry of Water’s intervention to complete several water projects whose implementation appears to be faltering.
The plea for intervention was made to the Ministry yesterday when Mr Kilangi met Deputy Minister for Water, Jumaa Aweso when the latter toured Simiyu region to, among other things, inspect ongoing water projects.
Speaking after inspecting Nkoma water project in Itilima district, Mr Kilangi said his district had a total of seven water projects, of which only three had been completed.
Giving an example, Mr Kilangi said Mwalushu water project whose implementation kicked off in 2014 was faltering, with residents crying for water.
He said the delay in completing the project was caused by incompetence on the part of the contractors.
Mr Kilangi also commended the efforts of the fifth phase government after receiving 3 billion/- for the construction of water dams.
He said since the completion of the three water projects, 220 residents are now receiving clean water. On his side, the deputy minister promised to ensure water challenges in Itilima and other districts in Simiyu region are taken care of.
Mr Aweso said the government has already invested over 68 bn/- but there are still some contractors who have failed to complete water projects on time. He further assured the residents that the government is making sure Itilima district water projects are completed by the end of June this year.
He said the government has enough funds for the projects but the Simiyu Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASA) engineers are not using the opportunity to buy equipment in order to complete their projects on time.
On his part, the Simiyu Regional Commissioner, Anthony Mtaka said only 51.8% of people in his region receive safe and clean water, saying that from 2015-2019, they have already completed six water projects worth 4.4bn/-.
