Restricting use of Wami basin water signals hard times ahead

This is not likely to be strange to Dar es Salaam residents, as they are aware that all former streams and rivers are now a pale shadow of what they used to be, except as gushes of floods if it rains really heavily.

The board says that currently the water level at the main source of water supply has fallen to 7,500 meters, from 12,500 meters in September last year.

That is fairly close to usable limits as the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority (DAWASA) sources the precious liquid from the basin at the rate of 5,000 cubic meters per second.

What this situation underlines is that our water harvesting and retention capacities are abysmal and unlikely to improve over time, as we are not in a position to harvest massive rainwater when it falls.

At most, households are to do the harvesting so that they can store water for hardy times, whereas few have inbuilt capacity for substantial water harvesting and storage. So we depend on rains to feed rivers, while the underground is drying up.

We keep expressing worries over prolonged periods of dry spells that affect water supply efforts, disturbing its distribution to Dar es Salaam residents and in Coast Region.

It was unclear though whether innovating methods to push water into its treatment plants will necessarily increase the water pushed into the plants. The idea that restricting the use of water for non-domestic use is a handy solution is acceptable as an emergency, but economic growth isn’t simply the management of emergencies.

The belt where the board is saying it is restricting water harvesting is really the upcoming industrial belt of the country on the basis of existing feasibility and land occupancy pursuits by incoming industrialists.

This will leave most industrial projects earmarked for Dar es Salaam and adjacent areas idling, with projects shifting to Rufiji District and Morogoro Region or to safer Coast Region areas lying beyond the Wami basin.

All this is merely the first shot in what is likely to become an economic planning and resource allocation crisis, as availability of good amounts of water is crucial to urban settlements and industrial development.

But in that no large-scale water harvesting is in place, and no harvester is likely to work with a public agency having water supply monopoly, it is DAWASA that has to find the water.