UNITED REPUBLIC OF TAANZANIA

MINISTRY OF WATER



PRESS RELEASE

The Citizen Newspaper ISSN 0856-9754 ISSUE number 322 dated 21
st

July 2014 carried an article by The Citizen reporter that Tanzanias
pace of Providing Water Sluggish and that has caused lack of trust
and public Awareness slowing the Pace. This is a totally confusing and
misleading story.
The Ministry through Water Sector Development Programme (WSDP)
has implemented a number of projects aiming at reducing water blues in
Urban and Rural areas.
The Water Sector Development Programme started since 2007 and has
been divided into four subcomponents namely Water Resource
Management, Urban Water Supply and Sanitation, Rural Water Supply
and Sanitation and Capacity Development.
The first phase of the Programme has increased water supply services to
86% to date in urban areas and for the Rural Water Supply a tremendous
achievement has been done.
For the past few months the Ministry has improved water services in the
rural areas by providing safe and clean water to more than 2,640,000
people in 270 villages in 98 District Councils within one year. Not only
that, but also 248 Water projects and 10,560 new Water Points have
been constructed from June 2013 to April 2014.
And also 373 Water user Associations were registered compared to 147
last year. This is a great achievement in the Water sector compared to
past few years.
The issue of awareness has been in place through different means for
example our participation in the Public Service exhibitions whereby our
Ministry won overall the first trophy in Innovative Service Delivery
Category. Not only that, but also in the International Water Week
Exhibitions our Ministry has played an important role ensuring
stakeholders meet and share experience with the Ministry exhibitor
services.
Celebrating the International Water Week different television and radio
programmes on Water sector were aired. More than ten projects were
launched.
The Ministry has participated several times in Nanene Exhibitions,
International Tourism Week in Mwanza last year.
Our top Ministerial leaders have travelled extensively monitoring
different projects countrywide ensuring and giving hope to the public
that, Water is the first priority and the Ministry is working hard to ensure
that, our citizen get safe and clean Water services.
Needless to say, it is unclear how the same respectable newspaper which
carried the series of Interview with CEO Presidents Delivery Bureau
(PDB) Mr Omary Issa who clearly explained the success reached by our
Ministry through Big Results Now initiative (BRN).
The interview was positively reported by this Newspaper. All these
initiatives show that, our Ministry is NOT sluggish as stated by the
Citizen reporter, this is antagonistic.
We respect freedom of Press and therefore recommend not misleading
our stakeholders by giving false, antagonistic information.


Issued by Government Communication Unit
Ministry of Water