Tanzania, Kenya sign deal on water project

Tanzania and Kenya on Tuesday signed an agreement on the implementation of a water project which upon completion will supply clean and safe water to over 10,000 people in northern Tanzania.

Under the agreement, which will be implemented next month, residents in Sirari, a border town in Mara region, are to be supplied with water from Isebania town in Kenya.

Tanzanian Minister of Water Jumanne Maghembe and his Kenyan counterpart, Minister for Water, Natural Resources and Environment Judi Wakhungu, sealed the pact in Tanzania's rocky city of Mwanza, located on the shores of Africa's largest basin lake Lake Victoria. 

After completion, the project is expected to cost over 320 million Tanzanian shillings (about 200,000 U.S. dollars).

Wakhungu said the project came about due to good relations Kenya is enjoying with Tanzania and other East African countries.

Sirari township in Tarime district boarders the Kenyan town of Isebania and residents of the two towns have been for a long time living in harmony and cooperating in many social and economic activities. 

GOOD NEIGHBOURS

Wakhungu said this good neighbourliness between Isebania and Sirari residents is one of the reasons which prompted his government to offer to assist in easing water problems facing Sirari residents. 

"With this agreement, more than 10,000 residents of Sirari will soon start getting water from Isebania town in Kenya," said Maghembe.

"The problem of shortage of water facing Sirari residents would soon become a history, "he said. 

"President Uhuru Kenyatta and his government have demonstrated that they true partners in development," Maghembe said, commending the Kenyan government for its willingness to assist Tanzania in its endeavour to bring social services closer to its people.

He said the government of Tanzania would ensure that the project becomes sustainable for the benefit of the people of Sirari.

The agreement was signed during a meeting held to lay strategies on how to curb water supply problems in East African countries.

The meeting, organized by the Lake Victoria Basin Commission, was attended by ministers and experts in the water sector in the East African countries.

Nebert Wobusobozi, the chairperson of the Sectoral Council of Ministers for Lake Victoria, called on member states of East African Community to protect the Lake Victoria Basin at all costs so that the current and future generations could continue enjoying the benefits of the Lake Victoria.