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Tanzania: So Much for Water Week, Just Pay Your Bills!
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The East African (Nairobi)
COLUMN
24 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
Karl Lyimo
Nairobi
Tanzania marked its annual Water Week last week (March 16-22), and the activities reminded one and all that billions of people worldwide live without access to clean and safe drinking water, or adequate sanitation.
The overwhelming consensus on the country's water situation is that it is progressively getting worse, and is bound to get out of control sooner rather than later.
This is largely the result of ongoing climate change, much of which is attributed to human activity that militates against sustainable coexistence with nature in general, and the environment in particular.
IF THE WATER WEEK WAS DESIGNED at the national level with the objective of sensitising Tanzanians to the need to be careful with water use, it has not quite worked, decades after inception.
Not only do ordinary Tanzanians still lack access to clean water, some of their leaders are by word and deed worsening an already bad situation.
Recent happenings will bear me out regarding the mundane matter of water bills and the payment thereof.
It will be agreed that although utility bills are a pain in the neck, they are a necessary part of the tried-and-tested concept of cost-sharing for socio-economic growth. Equally important is fulfilling one's social obligation to pay bills in full and on time.
Following the swearing-in of a new Tanzania government by President Jakaya Kikwete on February 13, former environment minister, Prof Mark Mwandosya, became the new water minister.
A week after his appointment, the minister directed the Dar Water & Sanitation Company (Dawasco) not to publish in the press details of government ministers with water bill arrears.
Publishing them he said, was embarrassing not only to the ministers, but also to the president and the government.
What is the world to make of that? His predecessor, Dr Shukuru Kawambwa, had towards the end of 2007 blatantly denied that government ministers were defaulting on their water bills.
However, some of the ministers mentioned gave various reasons for failing to pay their bills.
ONE CLAIMED HE WAS OUT OF THE country most of the time and, as such, had no time to look into the matter. Another said he did not know how to go about paying utility bills!
A third claimed that she had never received water bills. But, it was this very same minister who, after the water supply was disconnected by Dawasco, had it re-connected illegally by bypassing the company meter.
Late last year, Dawasco was owed more than Tsh3 billion (about $3 million) in water bill arrears, mostly by high-profile public officials living in the upmarket suburbs of Dar-es-Salaam.
The company desperately resorted to naming and shaming the defaulters in the press. It also set about disconnecting supply to major defaulters.
A CRUDE METHOD MAYBE, BUT IT WORKed wonderfully. For instance, after a fracas when disconnecting supplies to military estates over a Tsh276 million ($) bill, The military paid the arrears a week later.
The twist in the tail was delivered by Mr Mwandosya when he urged Arusha residents to pay their water bills promptly - less than a fortnight after he was sworn-in and within a week of directing Dawasco not to name-and-shame bigwigs defaulting on water bills.
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This is the height of double speak.
Mr Minister, you can do better than this.
Karl Lyimo is a freelance journalist based in Dar.
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