THE Minister for Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups, Dr Dorothy Gwajima, has called on the Dar es Salaam Water and Sanitation Authority (DAWASA) to speed up the provision of water services to more people, in order to reduce gender violence and promote gender equality.
Minister Gwajima made the call over the weekend when she visited DAWASA pavilion during the climax of a festival to promote development opportunities and oppose gender violence.
The event with the slogan "Know Opportunities, Reject Violence" organised by the Ministry of Social Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups was staged at the Leaders Club, Kinondoni in Dar es Salaam.
Minister Gwajima commended DAWASA for being among the participants in the festival, saying that the fight against gender violence goes hand in hand with the access to water services.
She said water access will prevent women and children from walking long distances and being subjected to acts of violence on the way and thus bringing balance and stimulating the welfare of the society.
In sub-Saharan Africa, at least 319 million people worry about where and how they'll get enough water. Without access to an improved water source, their days revolve around a walk for water, gathering enough to cook, clean, bathe and drink.
The task of collecting water falls mainly to women and children, especially girls, who carry water an average of 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) a day.
"I am happy to see that DAWASA has participated in this event and let's continue to work together, water is life and we must provide water close to people so that they don't have to worry about long distances," said minister Gwajima.
To keep pace with the demand for improved services due to economic and population growth, the DAWASA Communication Officer, Joseph Mkonyi, said authority has managed to beat the 95 per cent target set by the ruling party CCM election manifesto by one per cent.
The manifesto envisages 95 per cent water access in urban areas and 85 per cent in rural settings by the year 2025.
He said the provision of water services has to the great extent helped the government in bringing positive development and promoting the national economy because people are no longer spending a lot of time to fetch water.
"The authority has successfully implemented water projects in many areas of Dar es Salaam Region, we are proud to complete various projects that have improved the lives of our people.
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He mentioned areas that have benefited from new water projects as Mivumoni, Goba, Madale, Makongo, Mshikamano, Pugu, Ukonga, Chalinze and Mkuranga.
Recently, Vice-President Dr Philip Mpango directed water and sanitation authorities in the country to stop 'business as usual' tendency in their daily operations and instead, they should increase the speed of service delivery with quality and efficiency to meet the needs of customers.
He was speaking during the event to deliver information on the performance of the Water and Sanitation Authorities in the country for the financial year 2021/2022.
He said that despite the great efforts made by the government to provide quality sanitation services, there are still some authorities whose performance is not satisfactory and they do not solve people's problems as they are required.
On her part, Deputy Minister for Water, Maryprisca Mahundi, said that the ministry has enabled access to water to reach 87 per cent in rural areas, where a total of 996 water projects are being implemented.
In a move to increase water accessibility, the government through the DAWASA expects to start the implementation of a large water project in Rufiji that will produce 750 million liters of water per day to serve Dar es Salaam and Coast regions.
