Tanzania: Dar water community projects create hundreds of jobs

Community water projects (CWPs) established with the guidance of the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority (Dawasa) have created hundreds of jobs, mainly for the youths in the city, it has been learnt.

Speaking in a separate interview recently, manager of one of the successful projects, Juma Rashid, said the CWPs he was managing, which was established in 2007, had employed 14 people.

“We have eleven water kiosks supplied with water from the central deep well where we have employed one person to sale water to users. We also have security guards and the manager,” he said.

A member of the CWPs at Mburahati kwa Simba – an area got water under the same system early this year, Musa Shaban, said for starting they had installed four water kiosks where four youngsters worked as water sellers.

“We have recruited four people – all of them young girls to help us with selling water to customers. We expect to expand the network in the near future,” said Shaban, who was flanked by his CWPs chairman Madina Simba Mwinshehe.

Dawasa community liaison officer Neli Msuya said that the two deep wells were among over 200 constructed in various parts of Dar es Salaam under the authority’s comprehensive and sustained programme geared to provide water to communities which have lacked the essential service for many years.

“We have completely changed our approach to water service provision from the traditional system whereby the authority built the water facilities and operated the services for the people to a new one in which the people are empowered to run their projects themselves,” she said.

Msuya explained that under the new approach, water users through their CWPs contribute to the construction of the water facilities and were given complete authority in running the services through democratically selected committees.

“This new approach has already been implemented successfully in a number of areas in the city including Mburahati, Mzinga and parts of Mbagala, where public water services lacked for many years,” noted the officer.

The programme, she said, targeted areas where studies had established that they lack the essential service for decades.

She added that, apart from creating hundreds of jobs, the programme had enabled thousands of households to access clean and safe water at home through distribution systems whose operations and finance were completely under the CWPs.

“We are currently focusing on eleven deep wells which his Excellency President Jakaya Kikwete pledged to the people during last year’s election campaigns,” she said, adding that some among those had already been completed and handed over to the people, while others had reached different stages of construction.

Msuya said so far the new approach had proved successful in almost all communities because it focused and targeted water users who naturally volunteer to protect water infrastructures due to the fact that they directly benefit from them.

Dawasa community liaison engineer Lydia Ndibalema said in another interview that the major programme included a component of training to enable those entrusted to run the projects perform their duties efficiently.

“We train those selected to run the projects on basic skills for managing an efficient water project. We also keep on supporting them technically in the course of implementation of the projects,” she said.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN