50 years of Water Sector in Tanzania.

On December 9th 1961 Tanzania was granted independence from Britain.Since then many changes have taken place in the water sector in this country.The Ministry of Water and Irrigation has celebrated the upcoming anniversary by inviting all stakeholders working in water and sanitation to participate in an especially organized ‘Maji Week’(Water Week) on 24-28 October 2011.

visitors at the BORDA booth

As one of the main stakeholders in the sector, BORDA Tanzania (Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association) was invited to show and educate the public on decentralized waste water treatment and waste water disposal.
The Ministry of Water and Irrigation has been in charge of the water supply in the country since independence. In the fast growing city of Dar es Salaam the water supply and sewerage services are handled by DAWASA (Dar es salaam Water and Sewerage Authority). A strong effort has been made to supply water to the residents of the city, however the water supply is still inadequate. Due to this the Government of Tanzania, through the Ministry of Water and Irrigation together with DAWASA, has implemented several programmes to solve the water supply problem, however the problem persists.
It has been realized that as much more water is being pumped to feed the rapidly increasing population in urban areas, the amount of waste water produced also increases. Most of the urban areas in developing countries are lacking sufficient infrastructure to handle the sewage. This is also the  case in Dar es Salaam, where less than 10% of the total population has access to the sewerage facilities  developed in 1979.
In rapidly developing cities most of the people use boreholes as sources of water in their daily lives as the authority cannot supply sufficient fresh water through a piped system. However, due to most of the waste water not being disposed off in an adequate manner, groundwater is being polluted which leads to the outbreak of water borne diseases.
BORDA Tanzania has been active for many years in improving the public health of disadvantaged groups and meeting the demand for improved sanitation services while protecting fresh water resources. BORDA Tanzania therefore participated in the event by educating communities about the importance of protecting fresh water resources through waste water treatment and reuse. Waste water treatment and reuse  is the solution to many challenges of water shortages and underground fresh water protection in growing cities in developing countries.
During the opening of the event, the Deputy Minister of Water and Irrigation visited the BORDA Tanzania booth and received instruction on the methodology and different models used in decentralized waste water disposal and treatment solutions. The Biogas model was the highlight at the booth as many guests came to learn how the system works to produce biogas during the treatment of waste water. During this event the BORDA organized International seminar on City wide Sanitation Planning held in Dar es Salaam 08-09 November 2011 was also promoted and many of the visitors were highly interested in the initiative.
In Southern and Eastern Africa, BORDA is successfully demonstrating and disseminating demand oriented Basic Needs Services (BNS) and developing local implementation capacities within the public and private sector. The success of all of these efforts requires community participation and engagement and keeping this in mind the BORDA team participated in the event to educate the community about the advantages of decentralized waste water treatment systems.