water supply and sanitation in tanzania water supply and sanitation in tanzania water supply and sanitation in tanzania is characterised by: decreasing access to at least basic water sources in the 2000s (especially in urban areas), steady access to some form of sanitation (around 93% since the 1990s), intermittent water supply and generally low quality of service. many utilities are barely able to cover their operation and maintenance costs through revenues due to low tariffs and poor efficiency. there are significant regional differences and the best performing utilities are arusha and tanga. water supply and sanitation in tanzaniathe flag of tanzaniadatawater coverage (broad definition)(improved water source) 52% (2007, household survey), 50% ('at least basic' definition,2017, jmp)sanitation coverage (broad definition)(improved sanitation) 33% (2006, household survey), 24% ('at least basic' definition, 2017, jmp)continuity of supplymostly intermittent (17 out of 20 urban areas)average urban water use (l/person/day)not availableaverage urban water and sanitation tariff (us$/m3)0.34 (2008)share of household metering60% (in 20 urban areas)annual investment in wssus$175m (fiscal year 2008–09), or us$4/capitashare of self-financing by utilitieslowshare of tax-financinglowshare of external financing88%institutionsdecentralization to municipalitiesyesnational water and sanitation companynowater and sanitation regulatorenergy and water utilities regulatory authority (ewura)responsibility for policy settingministry of water and irrigation (water supply), ministry of health and social welfare (sanitation)sector lawwater supply and sanitation act nr. 12 of 2009no. of urban service providers20 urban water and sanitation authorities (uwssas) in cities, about 100 in townsno. of rural service providers8,394 water committees (2007) the government of tanzania has embarked on a major sector reform process since 2002 when an update was made to the national water policy nawapo. at that time, the central government reported that only 42% of rural households had access to improved water and that 30% of all water systems in the country were inoperative. an ambitious national water sector development strategy that promotes integrated water resources management and the development of urban and rural water supply was adopted in 2006. decentralisation has meant that responsibility for water and sanitation service provision has shifted to local government authorities and is carried out by 20 urban utilities and about 100 district utilities, as well as by community owned water supply organisations in rural areas. these reforms have been backed by a significant increase of the budget starting in 2006, when the water sector was included among the priority sectors of the national strategy for growth and reduction of poverty mkukuta. the tanzanian water sector remains heavily dependent on external donors: 88% of the available funds are provided by external donor organisations. results have been mixed. for example, a report by giz notes that "despite heavy investments brought in by the world bank and the european union, (the utility serving dar es salaam) has remained one of the worst performing water entities in tanzania." access access to water and sanitation remains low in tanzania. determining data on access is particularly difficult because different definitions and sources are used, which results in significant discrepancies. in 2015, 50% of the population had access to "at least basic" water, 79% and 37% of urban and rural areas, respectively. in tanzania, around 26 million people, in 2015, lacked access to "at least basic" water. regarding sanitation around 40 million, in 2015, lacked access to "at least basic" sanitation. in tanzania, in 2015, only 24% of the population had access to "at least basic" sanitation, 37% and 17% in urban and rural areas respectively. according to a report, household surveys regularly return lower rural water supply coverage than estimates by the ministry of water and irrigation (which are collected by district water engineers and urban water and sanitation authorities). for urban areas, survey data are consistently higher because they also include households that are not connected to the formal water supply network and access water from neighbours, protected wells or boreholes. water supply. slightly more than half the population of tanzania is estimated to have access to an improved water source, with stark differences between urban areas (about 79% in 2010) and rural areas (about 44% in 2010). in rural areas, access is defined as meaning that households have to travel less than one kilometre to a protected drinking water source in the dry season. trends in access to water supply are difficult to discern due to conflicting and unreliable data. however, it seems that access increased during the 1990s, particularly in rural areas, but stagnated during the 2000s. according to data from the household budget surveys 2000/2001 and 2007 access to an improved water source in mainland tanzania even decreased from 55% in 2000 to 52% in 2007. using a narrow definition, in 2007 around 34% of households had access to piped water, as opposed to 40% in 2000. however, using a broader definition of access that also includes standpipes and protected springs, there has been a slight increase in the proportion of households reporting a drinking water source within one kilometre. estimates from the joint monitoring programme for water supply and sanitation (jmp) show a different trend. they show a slight decline in access from 55% in 1990 to 53% in 2010. according to these figures, access in rural areas stagnated, while in urban areas it decreased from 94% to 79% over the same period. the jmp estimates rely on extrapolations using, among others, data from the household budget survey 2000/2001 and 2007, the census of 2002 and the demographic and health surveys of 1999, 2005 and 2010. sanitation. national household budget surveys ask respondents about the type of sanitary facility they have. in 2007 93% of tanzanians responded that they had some form of latrine, but only 3% had a flush toilet. international statistics that monitor the achievement of the millennium development goal for sanitation are based on these numbers, but only after making some important adjustments in an effort to achieve comparability across countries. the joint monitoring programme for water supply and sanitation (jmp) defines improved sanitation as excreta disposal systems that are private and that separate human excreta from human contact. shared latrines or open pit latrines are excluded from this definition. the jmp estimates that only about half the latrines in tanzania can be considered improved sanitation systems. based on that definition, access to improved sanitation is much lower than the population with access to any type of latrine. according to the jmp definition, access to improved sanitation was only 10% in 2010, up from 8% in 1990, with an increase in urban areas and a slight decrease in rural areas. access to water and sanitation in tanzania (2007) dar es salaam (6% of population) other urban areas (19% of population) rural (75% of population) total water broad definition 85% 76% 40% 52% house connections 8% 13% 1% 4% sanitation all forms, including latrines 97% 97% 90% 93% flush toilets 10% 6% 1% 3% service quality continuity of supply. of the twenty urban water supply and sanitation authorities (uwssas) that operate in tanzania, three are able to provide continuous water supply (arusha, songea and tanga). in eleven other cities water is supplied for at least 19 hours. in babati and mtwara there is water supply for 12 hours per day. the lowest figures (5 hours per day) come from the cities of kigoma, lindi and singida. in dar es salaam water is supplied on average for 9 hours per day. water quality. water quality varies significantly within the country. in the semi-arid regions (including dodoma, singida, tabora, shinyanga, and arusha), colour and turbidity levels become problematic during the rainy season. rivers in the fluoride belt (including arusha, kilimanjaro, singida, and shinyanga regions of the rift valley, and extending to the pangani and internal drainage basins) have naturally high fluoride concentrations. the waters of lakes tanganyika and nyasa have overall good water quality except in the vicinity of urban areas where effluent and storm water cause local contamination, whereas the water quality of lake victoria is poor: high turbidity and nutrient levels lead to frequent blooms of algae and infestations of water weeds. controls of the quality of drinking water fall under the responsibility of local service providers at the point of water production. they refer to water quality standards established for urban and rural areas in the 1970s. a water pollution incident occurred at the barrick gold north mara mine in may 2009, when acidic water (ph 4.8) seeped from a mine rock storage facility into the tigithe river, which is used for irrigation, bathing and as an unprotected source of drinking water. wastewater treatment. of the twenty major urban water utilities, 11 provide some access to sewer connections. in moshi the reported connection rate is 45% (although this also includes some industrial connections), in morogoro the reported rate is 15% and in dodoma and iringa it is 13%. in dar es salaam the length of the sewer network is estimated at 188 km, although only 4% of households have access to it. according to an article by a group of researchers from the waste stabilisation ponds and constructed wetlands (wsp & cw) research group at the university of dar es salaam, stabilization ponds have been the most common technology for wastewater treatment in tanzania. waste stabilisation ponds have been introduced since the late 1960s, due to the favourable tropical climate and the availability of natural wetlands. at that time, twenty wastewater pond systems were recorded as existing, five of them were used to treat textile, paper mill, tannery and other industrial wastewater. however, many waste stabilisation ponds systems are ineffective because of poor operation and maintenance, design and configuration mistakes and the mixing of municipal and industrial wastes. starting in 1998, constructed wetlands were introduced in tanzania. ten units have been built for residential houses and institutions such as schools, prisons and colleges. they serve about 12,000 people. in addition, wastewater treatment plants are reported to operate in the municipalities of morogoro, dodoma, iringa, arusha and songea and in the cities of dar es salaam and mwanza. wastewater samples are collected from these wastewater treatment plants. the result of the analysis of 250 samples showed that national standards for effluent prior to discharge were met in 88% of cases. water resources mwanza, tanzania's second largest city, receives its water from lake victoria as a whole and on average, tanzania has extensive water resources. according to the food and agriculture organization (fao), in 2008 tanzania had 96.27 km3 of renewable water resources per year (by comparison, estimated world water resources are in the order of 43,750 km3/year). this corresponds to 2,266 m3 per person and year. water resources are however distributed unevenly - both in time and space. during the dry season, which usually lasts from june to october, even large rivers can dry up or their flow declines substantially. some parts of the country receive, on average, up to 3,000mm of rain per year, while in other regions (such as the dodoma region or the rift valley) yearly rainfall averages 600mm. projections indicate that by 2025 tanzania will experience water stress (defined as average per capita water resources below 1,500 m3) due to population growth and the resulting increase in consumption. as of 2002, water use for municipal water supply in mainland tanzania was about 493 million m3/year, or 0.5% of total renewable water resources. the dry great ruaha river in 2006 illustrates the scarcity of water during the dry season in parts of tanzania lakes alone cover about 7% of tanzania's land surface. on the borders there are three african great lakes: lake victoria, lake tanganyika and lake nyasa; inland lakes include lake rukwa, lake eyasi and lake manyara. there are nine major drainage basins in tanzania, divided according to the recipient water body. the lake victoria basin drains to the mediterranean sea (through the nile river basin). draining to the indian ocean there are the pangani river basin, the ruvu/wami river basin, the rufiji river basin, the ruvuma river and southern coast basin, the lake nyasa basin. the lake tanganyika basin drains to the atlantic ocean through the congo river basin. the internal drainage basin and the lake rukwa basin belong to the rift valley (endorheic) basin. tanzania has been divided into nine administrative units corresponding to the nine major river or lake basins. basin water offices (bwos) are responsible for regulating and planning the use of