RESIDENTS of Dar es Salaam and the Coast regions and some areas of Mororogo Region should brace themselves for substantial water rationing, following a significant drop of water levels at Ruvu Water Treatment Plants.
Authorities have placed an alert for the residents to prepare themselves as some parts of the city are already experiencing biting water rationing for the past one month.
The Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority (DAWASA) noticed the drop in water levels at the plants, reducing the supply by almost 36 per cent. This has resulted into limit the supply.
The announcement was made yesterday by the Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner (RC) Mr Amos Makalla, when he visited and inspected the Ruvu Water Treatment Plants both Lower and Upper, following complaints of water shortage in some areas of the two regions.
"The current situation is not pleasing... water levels have dropped significantly in our sources -- both Lower and Upper Ruvu. Normally, the we were producing 466 million liters from both the Upper and Lower Ruvu plants per day, but now both sources are producing 300 million liters per day equal to 64 per cent of the capacity
"In such a situation, we cannot escape from water rationing," RC Makalla underscored, while associating the situation to the lack of autumn rains.
Ruvu river which is one of the largest rivers in Tanzania and the main source of water for the two water plants is also experiencing drop in water levels. It is the main source of freshwater in Dar es Salaam, a business city with a population of over 6 million.
While mid-October spells the start of the short rains, the country has instead experienced little rainfall - associated with climate change.
RC Makalla implored Dar es Salaam, Coast and Morogoro dwellers to use water carefully, while identifying government's efforts to deal with the challenge, including completing a Kigamboni boreholes project this month that will help mitigate the water woes for Kigamboni residents and other areas in Dar es Salaam city centre.
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"There are efforts being made by DAWASA to complete the Kigamboni project by the end of the month, a project that will have the capacity to produce approximately 70 million litres per day," he added
On behalf of the Coast and Morogoro Reginald Commissioners, RC Makala pledged to continue cooperate with Dawasa in protecting water sources to ensure reliable access to water in those areas.
Recently, Dawasa, Chief Executive Officer, Eng Cyprian Luhemeja said the authority had invested 1.1tri/- to implement different water projects for the Coast and Dar es Salaam Regions and improvement of water availability.
Eng Luhemeja made the remarks when speaking about the implementation of the authority activities for the financial year 2021/22 and 2022/23.
He said during this financial year, Dawasa intended to embark of the implementation of Kidunda dam water project, where the government has set aside 388bn/- for the project. He said the contractor was likely to be on the site by this October.
Apart from Kidunda project, Kimbiji water project which involve drilling of seven boreholes at Kigamboni worth 23bn/-. The project is nearing its completion
