DAR ES SALAAM: THE Vice President of the World Bank (WB), East and Southern Africa Region, Dr Victoria Kwakwa, has praised Tanzania as an example in the implementation of the sustainability program of water and sanitation services in rural areas.

Tanzania has been mentioned to make good use of the Program for Results (PforR) which is implemented in more than 50 countries and is financed by the World Bank.

The Ministry of Water through the program has implemented more than 1,500 water projects that have been completed and are providing water services.

Victoria said this when talking to the Minister for Finance, Dr Mwigulu Nchemba and Minister for Water Jumaa Aweso, when they held a meeting in Ethiopia recently.

She said Tanzania is an excellent example in implementation of the PforR Program and she asked it to share its success experience with more than 23 countries from the Eastern and Southern African region participating in the WASH Leadership Summit.

Dr Kwakwa said that initially Tanzania received 350 million US dollars in five years but within the first three years it had delivered water to more than 4.7 million people in rural areas in 17 regions.

She said that as a result of the success, the World Bank has decided to add 300 million US dollars to Tanzania and thus expand the scope of implementation to 25 regions and currently 970m/- have been sent to each council to start implementation.

The WB boss said that the success has officially opened the door to the sustainability of the program which ends in July 2025, and following Tanzania's request to have PforR second phase, the WB has shown its readiness to have the PforR Phase Two in the period 2025-2030.