MEETING IN PROCESS AT VETA IN IRINGA REGION
THE ASSOCIATION of Rural Cooperation in Africa and Latin America (ACRA) Country Coordinator-Tanzania, Luca Todeschini said, if water projects and water supply systems will include water users participation in the management of water supply can be important for systems sustainability.
He said that most of the water projects in many areas were not sustainable managed and dies due to lack community ownership and support to take care off.
Todeschini made the appeal on Monday during a two-day water point mapping stakeholders workshop held in Iringa, in which eight local government authorities and regional secretariat of Iringa, international NGOs and representatives from the Ministry of Water and Irrigation were attended.
The workshop which was funded by ACRA in collaboration with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation (MOWI) was meant to bring stakeholders together so that they can share experience and come up with common understanding on the implementing of water point mapping systems.
“Water point mapping is an essential tool towards the achievement of the water sector development program and in long run to meet the MDG” he emphasized.
He said water projects after constructed by let' say, the government or a non-governmental organization should be handed over to legal WUAs, which are users associations that will be in charge of the operation and maintenance of the water systems and their cost recovery.
ACRA is a non-governmental organization founded in 1968 and recognized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Union, which has been working in Tanzania on water and sanitation since 2005, with projects in the Iringa Region and in the Zanzibar archipelago.
The ACRA projects focus on two topics: ensuring access to water infrastructures and improvement of sanitation, and making their management sustainable through direct involvement of users.
According to country coordinator, ACRA considers water a public good and fundamental human right, which is often denied, and for ACRA, dealing with water means first of all to deal denied rights.
“ACRA considers water a public good and improvement access to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is crucial towards the achievement of the millennium development goals” he noted.
However, ACRA is working hand in hand with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and support it to achieve in water point mapping and to find out how many water points that are functional and non-functional and work on the challenges.
According to the Assistant Director in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, Eng. Gibson Kisaka, the workshop was meant to come up with common understanding and share of experience with other stakeholders hence implementation of the water sector development program and MDG meeting.
Kisaka said water point mapping systems will be done in 60 local government authorities countrywide before the end of December this year which will enable district water engineers to collect data water points that are operating and non-operating in their respective areas as is an essential tool for achievement WSDP objective.
He mentioned that the communities through legal water users entities will be trained so that they can be able operate the water schemes and make sure that they were responsible for management and maintenance hence sustainability.
However, the water point mapping systems are tools that will help LGAs and MOWI to carryout effective monitoring and evaluation water point operation and will help district water engineers to collect data on operation water point projects to avoid duplication of distribution water resources in one area.
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