Sustainable cities and territories #10. Our series in partnership with the Africa-France 2020 Summit.
The inhabitants of Makang’wa village will soon be relieved. After 50 years of living without adequate water services, they have access to drinking water production facilities. On February 18, 2020, the Tanzanian government launched the solar-powered water supply project in this locality. The 350 million Tanzanian shillings (about $152,000) project will provide more than 7,000 households in Makang’wa and neighbouring villages with access to drinking water and irrigation.
The Makang’wa Solar Water Supply Project will construct a drinking water supply linked to a solar off grid, renovate a reservoir and 13 drinking water distribution points. These facilities will be capable of providing 336 m³ of drinking water per day.
The government has already provided 100 million shillings (over $43,000) in advance for the construction of the drinking water supply. This scheme comes at a time when the government has inaugurated a drinking water supply system in Zanzibar at the beginning of February 2020.
The facility will improve drinking water supply services throughout the islands of the archipelago. In the town of Saateni on the main island of Unguja, for example, six boreholes have been drilled. The local government also laid 75.7 km of drinking water pipes and rehabilitated 23 existing boreholes. For the implementation of this project, the local government of Zanzibar received support from the African Development Bank (AfDB), China, India, Japan, and Ras al Khaimah and Sharja, two of the United Arab Emirates.
Ines Magoum