Rural water supply as a stimulant of economic development

Abstract

Water is a shared common resource fundamental to life and in sustaining the environment. It touches all spheres of life including domestic agriculture, livestock, fisheries, wildlife, industry, energy, recreation and other social and economic activities. It is vital for sustainable socio-economic development as a primary input playing a pivotal role in alleviating poverty through enhancement of food security, domestic hygiene security, hydropower, industrial development, navigation and the environment. Food and agriculture are by far the largest consumers of water. This paper provides information on water supply service provision in Tanzania. It shows that issues or challenges pertaining to the rural water supply as mainly on financial availability and institutional capacities. In order to address the challenges embracing water supply service provision, on-going initiatives have been described. These include initiatives undertaken at the global level as well as those undertaken at national level. The global initiatives include World Summit on Environment and Development, World Water Council, World Water Forum, World Summit on Sustainable Development, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, the European Union Water Facility and the African Development Bank. Those at the national level include the National Water Policy, the National Water Sector Development Strategy and the draft new Water Act. A special effort emanating from the National Water Sector Development Strategy is the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program. The paper shows how the Program currently being developed is going to embark on the rural water supply service provision by the year 2015, by describing about the implementation plan, the technology mix, the institutional framework and the financial requirements. Having described about the past and present situation on water supply, a brief is given on future outlook, in terms of coordination of water supply interventions, institutional reforms and the expected increased financial resources into the sector. Considering the future outlook, the paper gives a conclusion on capitalization on the existing opportunities as described in the text to attract more resources into the rural water supply sub-sector. This will raise the rural water supply service coverage, with the goal that the general public shall have better health and quality life necessary for implementation of development activities in different fronts in domestic agriculture, livestock, fisheries, wildlife and other industries. The paper ends by closely linking water supply service provision with economic development as a whole. Proceeding of the Discourse on Engineering Contribution in Poverty Reduction March 18th - 19th 2005