Report: Tanzania faces severe water scarcity

Dar es Salaam. Although government data shows that eight out of 10 people are supplied with water, Tanzania is among the countries that face acute shortage of the commodity.

This follows a dramatic fall of the country’s water per capita to below 1,700 cubic metres (1.7 million litres) by this year, from 3,086 (3 million litres) cubic metres attained two decades ago.

According to the ministry of Water and Irrigations data, if apt measures are will not be taken, the water per capita consumption will slump to 885 cubic metres (0.9 million litres) in the forthcoming two decades.

The latest data means that the water per capita has decreased from 3 million litres per person in 1995 to 1.7 million litres this year, which is about a 50 per cent fall. The Tanzania Economic Update 2017 report, which was released by the World Bank on Monday, shows that the plunge was a result of increased population, which has almost doubled, and tripled size of the economy while the amount of water remained the same.

Climate change is also exacerbating Tanzania’s water stress as rising temperature is likely to result into an increase of water scarcity.

Agriculture is the leading consumer of water, as the report shows, it accounts for 89 per cent, followed by domestic consumption (10 per cent) and industries are the least consumers accounting for one per cent only. Tanzania population stood at 23 million people by 1988 and the number has more than doubled to 51 million people by the end of last year while the economy, based on purchasing power parity, has expanded from $30 billion in 1995 to $127 billion by 2014.

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.