Improving access to clean water and sanitation for lakeside communities

Tanzania joined the group of water-stressed countries in 2014 when the availability of renewable water resources per capita declined from over 3,000 m3 to 1,600 m3, and is expected to further decline to 1,400 m3 by 2025.

Mwanza is the second largest city in Tanzania (after Dar es Salaam) and the second most populous city on the shores of lake Victoria after Kampala. The cities of Mwanza, Bukoba and Musoma draw almost all of their water resources in Lake Victoria. 

It is estimated that by 2031, they will have populations of 1,150,000, 255,000 and 340,000 respectively. Before this project, the facilities and functioning of the existing systems in these three cities were grossly inadequate to meet the needs of this growing population. Bukoba and Musoma had no collective sanitation system and the existing system in Mwanza was very limited.

The project aimed to improve access to drinking water supply and affordable sanitation services in Mwanza and the satellite towns of Mwanza (Misungwi, Magu and Lamadi) and sanitation services in town of Musoma and Bukoba. 
This project included: The expansion of the sanitation and wastewater treatment systems by rehabilitating and expanding a wastewater treatment plant in Mwanza.

• The construction of new wastewater treatment plants in the 3 towns.
• The construction of collectors, connections and sanitary blocks.
• Providing of sanitation services in schools, public places and informal settlements in Mwanza city and its peri-urban areas
• Providing of septic tank emptying services, and equipment and installation of a fecal sludge drying station in Mwanza.
• A technical assistance to build the capacities of water and sanitation utilities
• The promotion of agreements with industrialists for them to treat their effluents and conduct a water quality monitoring study in the water intake point along lake Victoria’s shore. 

This project aims at: 

• Increasing of the water coverage up to 84% to ensure that over 400,000 people will have access to improved Water supply and Sanitation services in Mwanza city and satellite areas of Musoma and Bukoba.
• Reducing lake pollution by connecting the informal settlements located in Mwanza’s hilly areas to the simplified sewerage system.
• Increasing the number of students (especially female) attending classes through the construction of toilets in school and public places.