Will EWURA intervention solve Dar water problems?

Eugenia Madhidha
The place is crowded, women putting on kangas are miserably sitting on their buckets, some could be seen gossiping while others are anxiously waiting for their turn to draw water, scores of men with pushcarts loaded with empty plastic containers are also agonizingly waiting for their turn to get the precious liquid.
The place is a mess with water being splashed everywhere leaving the area wet and muddy. One will be forgiven to mistaken the place to a fish market, but alas, the place describes central water collection point in Yombo-Kilakala which is a common place in most high density suburbs in Dar es Salaam.
The water collection point popularly known as bombani are strategically located in these areas to an extent that residents draw water from central points in the suburbs. The problem, however, is that they are very few such that some have to walk for long distances to get to a nearest point. This problem has been mainly caused by vandalism and theft.
Last year, the Dar es Salaam Water and Sanitation Authority (DAWASA) and Dar es Salaam Water and Sanitation Corporation (DAWASCO), revealed that they suffered vandalism and theft despite steps to counter the stealing of pipes and other water equipment which were affecting the water supply network in the city.
According to DAWASA then, more than 360 pieces worth some 700m/- were stolen since 2006. The pieces include valves, fire hydrants, flanges, coupling, water meters, pipe joints and steel cover and were still working on recovering them.
These problems have been denying wananchi access to clean water in Dar es Salaam to an extent that some of the residents have been forced to fetch water from unprotected shallow wells, something that posses a great danger to their health.
This quest for making quick buck has seen many people engaging in uncouth activities such as stealing of water equipment or illegal connections to the water supply network. DAWASCO has been for a long-time discovered many illegal connections that they disconnected, by-passing official connections to avoid paying for the water used.
Last year, three people were arrested in Sinza, Dar es Salaam for allegedly tampering with DAWASCO infrastructure. The company’s chief commercial officer, Raymond Mndolwa said then that the suspects drilled into big eight inch water pipe and allegedly connected their pipes that enabled them to access water and started selling it to customers including big water vehicles.
Six water pumps were confiscated in the operation at three houses in the area. Such acts of sabotage are counter productive as they thwart efforts by the government to provide clean water to wananchi as greedy citizens take advantage and make it an opportunity to rack millions of dollars.
However all hope is not lost as the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (EWURA) directed the DAWASA to improve the water supply and sewerage services, including installation of meters.
According to EWURA’s recent newsletter, DAWASA was given an ultimatum to increase the number of metered customers to 104,000 by the end of this month, helping customers to be charged according to consumption.
Areas expected to be metered by the end of this month include, Kimara,Kibaha, Dar es Salaam city centre and Boko.
More to that, the newsletter indicates that DAWASA should reduce unaccounted for water to 40% by June this year. This will go a long way in alleviating the problem of water shortages in the city as a lot of unaccounted for water is lost through vandalism and unattended to burst pipes.
It will also remain a sad story for many residents in high density suburbs as the ultimatum does not directly benefit them. Those who will smile most are those with the means to pay for the metered water and the responsible authorities should see to it that water is availed to everyone including the ordinary person on the streets.
But, with vandalism continuing to cripple the water distribution network and burst pipes taking long to be attended to, then the problem of water in Dar es Salaam is far from over. It is vital that everyone plays his or her part to safeguard the equipment failure to do that water provision will remain a nightmare for the powers that be in the city and the ordinary people will continue to suffer as Dar will remain a dry city
Ends.