Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water & Sanitation & Hygiene May -June 2017 | Page 8

NEWS in brief
Around Africa
“It
seems
the
ground
water level has
significantly
declined,
as
there is hardly
any water left
in the wells,”
a resident he
said.
Tanzania
India to Finance Water Project for Tabora
He complained
that
many
villagers now
have to buy their drinking water from commercial tankers.
“The price of a barrel of water lies between SDG 20 and
SDG 30 ($4.50).”
Eastern Sudan
The people in El Dali and El Mazmum localities in Sennar
are also suffering from thirst.
The area affected most is the administrative unit of Abu
Areef. “For about a month, the people there have to make
do with water distributed by tankers,” a resident of the area
told this station.
He said that the provision of drinking water to the area of
Bozi is cut off “because the water pump broke down last
week”.
People of a number of districts in El Gedaref also
complained of a shortage of drinking water “as a result of
the ongoing supply cuts, in some districts for two weeks,
and in other neighbourhoods for a month”.
A housewife reported from El Gedaref that the price of a
barrel of water in the suburbs reached SDG 20 ($3). “Inside
El Gedaref town, we pay SDG 17).
Radio Dabanga reported recently that not only dropping
levels of ground water in Kassala, but also a lack of reserves
in the state’s water reservoirs are causing a major water
shortage these days.
‘Zero Thirst’
The complaints of people living in Red Sea state about the
recurrent water outages in the region may stop soon, as the
federal Ministry of Finance signed an agreement recently
for the installation of two water purification stations and
the rehabilitation of four desalination seawater stations in
the region.
The project, scheduled to be finished within 45 days, will
cost SDG 72,400,000 ($10,728,300), Minister of Finance
Badreldin Mahmoud told reporters in Khartoum.
The project is part of the Zero Thirst programme that
targets social development in all states, especially in eastern
Sudan, he said.
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Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • May - June 2017
The Government of India has signed a contract of US $
268.35 million with Tanzania through the Ministry of Water
and Irrigation in a quest to improve water supply projects
in Tabora Region.
The agreement that was inked late in April, 2017 between
the Minister of Water and Irrigation in Tanzania, Eng
Gerson Lwenge and the Indian Deputy High Commissioner
Mr Robert Shetkintong, aims at benefitting the districts
of Tabora, Igunga and Nzega. Eng Lwenge thanked the
government of India for its assistance to Tanzania especially
in water supply sector.
He said the projects will improve the lives of the common
people in the region in an area that is of high priority to the
Government of Tanzania.
“The water project in Tabora, Nzega and Igunga will involve
construction of a water pumping station, water treatment
plant, water transmission pipelines and water distribution
network over the next two and a half years,” he explained.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by the Regional
Commissioner of Tabora Mr Aggrey Mwanri, several
Members of Parliament, and representatives of the regional
administration.