Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has instructed Regional and District Commissioners to ramp up security around water sources, in an effort to address the prevailing shortage of the precious liq- uid in various parts of the country, including Dar es Salaam and Coast regions.
President Samia also directed for a regular patrol and cleanup on all rivers heading to water treatment plants, to ensure that they are not diverted for human activities that cause worrying decreases in water levels. President Samia issued the directives on Thursday in Mwanza, during commemorations of the 50th Anniversary of the Bugando Zonal Hospital, saying those who will continue diverting water for their individual reasons should brace themselves for legal actions.
“Implementation of these directives should start with immediate effect,” she ordered, expressing optimism that the strategy will help to increase water level at the treatment plants.
Shortage of water in the main sources has also reduced the capacity of the Tanzania Electric Company Limited (Tanesco) to produce enough power as a result of the current power rationing in some regions. She said an ongoing exercise to cleanup water basins has established the presence of some people, who have blocked and diverted water for farming and pastoral activities.
“Some of the people are grazing their cattle along the river basin, and on average, one cow consumes 40 liters of water per day, this causes a reduction of water flow to the treatment plants,” she said.
“There is no way we can let a few individuals divert water for their use at the expense of the majority, this can be classified as an intended sabotage, and this is unacceptable,” warned the Head of State.
The president also called for special prayers for the almighty God to intervene and bless the country with rain that will help in ending shortage of water and electricity.
Already, the Minister for Water Jumaa Aweso is leading a team of officials and technicians from his dockets to clean up water sources and river basins for the sake of smoothing flow of water to the Lower Ruvu plant in the Coast Region.
This is done in fulfillment of the directives of Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa issued on Monday during his impromptu visit to the Lower and Upper Ruvu water treatment plants that supply water to Dar es Salaam and Coast regions. During his tour, Mr Majaliwa issued a three-day ultimatum to authorities to trace all tributaries of Ruvu River Basin and clean up human activities that interfere with such water sources, otherwise they risk being sacked.
He said water authorities across the country must act fast “and now” to remove all human-related activities including agriculture and livestock grazing near the river and any other water sources. Speaking recently, the Chief Executive Officer of Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority (Dawasa) Eng Cyprian Luhemeja said that water level has dropped and that production has dropped from 270 million litres to 210 million litres per day.
According to him, Dawasa produces 520 million litres of water per day, but since the water level at Lower Ruvu has plummeted, production has dropped to 460 million litres, resulting in a 60 million litres deficit.
“We are working on this issue because we generate 197 million litres per day in Upper Ruvu, 7.3 million litres in Wami, and 6.8–7.0 million litres in Mtoni, so we have relocated water from Upper Ruvu to Lower Ruvu to ensure city people get water,” Mr Luhemeja said.
In another development, as part of efforts to address power deficit in the country, the power utility Tanesco is installing additional natural-gas powered plants in Ubungo, Dar es Salaam, to ramp up power generation by 345MW as hydropower runs low in the wake of drought season.
Tanesco’s Managing Director Maharage Chande revealed the plan in Dar es Salaam, saying the move will add 21 per cent of total power production.
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