The World Bank/WBI’s CBNRM Initiative
Case Received: January 28, 1998
Author: Diana E. Makule,PRIVATE
Contact: P.O.Box 10624, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
Tanzania is endowed with abundant water sources both surface and groundwater potentials. In 1970, the Government proclaimed a twenty -year Rural Water Supply Programme (1971-1990) with the objective of providing safe and clean water to over 90 percent of the population within an easy reach of 400m from their homestreands. Among some achievements made under the program were:
* Attaining self-sufficiency in water technology,
* 44% of 18.43million people living in the rural areas had access to safe water supply by Dec.1988.
Nevertheless, besides these achievements, the resource was not properly managed and developed due to unco-ordinated planning. Water resources development was being managed following sectoral, regional or district interests of the central government. This made it rather difficult to clearly understand and control resource availability. Due to low awareness the local communities were degrading the environment through socio-economic activities eg, uncontrolled felling of trees, bush fires, over grazing, pollution of water sources etc; which severely affected the resource potentials.
Having realized this problem, the Government has adopted a River Basin as a planning unit. Analysis, evaluation and management is to be made at the basin level. In pursuing this strategy the Government established Basin Water Offices in Pangani (1991) and The Rufiji (1993)as a first step.
PANGANI RIVER CATCHMENT
The administrative area of Pangani Basin is situated in the North-east of the country and drains into the Indian Ocean. The basin consists of four rivers; Umba, Sigi, Msangazi and Pangani River. Pangani river which is under discussion dominates the basin with a catchment area of 42,200km.sq. The catchment covers three regions; Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Tanga. A small part of the catchment is located in Kenya. The climate in the catchment varies considerably, and the Pangani River Basin comprises several sub-catchments of widely different characteristics. The upper parts in the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru receive 1200-2000mm rainfall per year, and the rest catchment area receive only about 500mm per year. There are two distinct rainy seasons, the short one from mid October to December and the long one from mid March to June.GROUNDWATER POTENTIALS
In Pangani Basin main abstractions are from surface water (about 95 percent), but the remaining water is taken from ground water sources. There is a significant amount of groundwater potential compared to the other basins in the country. Irrigation is the main ground water user, and account for 80 percent of the total abstractions. Boreholes yielding more than 100 cubic metre per hour have been drilled in Kahe plains while boreholes yielding between 10 to 50 m3/h are in Sanya plains and Karoo rocks of Tanga. Groundwater recharge is mainly from rainfall and rivers.THE INITIAL SITUATION OF PANGANI BASIN
Previously, water resources development in the country was being managed following sectoral, regional and district interests of the Central Government. Government agencies were involved in the planning, managing, operating and maintaining water resources development programmes without consulting or involving water users/stakeholders. This resulted into the following:-Conflicts:- The major problem and conflict between different user interests within Pangani was a result of the limited amount of water available against different high demands. At small scale conflicts occurred among farmers upstream against those downstream. At large scale the conflicts were between the sectors of agriculture (food production) and hydropower production. In Pangani Basin, irrigation takes place upstream of hydropower generation plants.
Pollution:-Serious pollution of the water sources took place at the catchment area where both population and industrial densities are high. The outlet of organic matters, nutrients,micro-organism and micro-pollutants do not only affect the ecology but also human health. Outlets of municipal waste water and waste water from industries were therefore in conflict with almost every other user interests in the catchment, especially drinking water interests, irrigation of crops and food and beverage industry.
Main pollution in the basin however, originated from sisal fibre production industry.
Inefficient Water Use:- The resource was not being used efficiently. The traditional irrigation furrows also used for domestic purpose, had been in operation for many years. The furrows are based upon an extensive network (approximately 1800km) of canals. The canals were mostly unlined and had no facilities to regulate water flow. This resulted in wasting of water through leaching and much more water than actually needed was abstracted. The efficiency of the traditional furrows could be as low as 20 percent (NIVA 91).
Deforestation:- The increasing population in the catchment (along the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Meru) led to expansion of socio-economic livelihoods. It gave a way to an increased demand for source of energy, construction materials, land for agricultural production and livestock keeping. This by itself coupled with ignorance and lack of clear regulations and control over forestry, resulted into destruction of forests, woodlands, bush fires and over grazing affecting the river flows as some of the springs dried up. There are no figures on the deforestation rate in Pangani; only that deforestation is taking place and that Tanzania is losing 2 percent of its forests every year (NIVA 1995,41)
Central Water Board (CWB)
The Central Water Board is established under section 5(1) of the Act No. 42/74 at the National Level and consists of at least 10, and not more than 15 members who are appointed by the Minister for water affairs and a chairman who is appointed by the President. The function of the board is to act as a principal advisory organ on matters pertaining to utilization of water nationally. It is given executive power on pollution, but act as an advisor to the PWO with respect to the utilization of water, regulations and control. Other issues include water rights (determination, modification etc.) and regulation of discharge of effluent to national declared water sources.Pangani Basin Water Board (PBWB) and Pangani Basin Water Office (PBWO)
The functions of Pangani Basin Water Board are the same as those of the Central Water Board in their areas of jurisdiction. Six members of the Basin Board drawn from public, private,NGOs and women organisations are appointed by the Minister responsible for water affairs. The two boards co-ordinates water resources management and water pollution efforts in the basin in co-operation with governmental and regional authorities. The two boards are also fulfilling an urgent need of various ministries involved to have a more proper use of the water resources and to avoid serious pollution problems. At district to village levels they promote participatory planning and systematic involvement of stakeholders in decision making. At these stages the communities are educated and trained on the need for management, protection and conservation of water resources. Moreover they are made aware of the factors contributing to reduced flows of the Pangani river affecting their socio-economic livelihood encouraging them to form Water User Associations (WUA). Amazingly, the communities, users/stakeholders are responding positively to their best capacities whenever their co-operation is needed. As a result, the PBWO has achieved a lot towards improving the situation in the basin.WORK ACCOMPLISHED BY PBWO (1991-1995)
Due to financial constraints the activities carried by the office have been so far related to the use of water and to some extent controlled and fined polluters. They include:- Application fee - paid for Water Rights application forms.
- Water User Fee - paid every year for the total amount of water used. These funds have enabled the office to run their activities within the past three years which they did not have budget allocation from the Central Government.
THE LESSONS LEARNED
The strategy is good and profitable in both short term and long term planning, except in short term planning big investments are needed to attain modesty profit. Water User Associations are the most efficient way of participatory management. For instance; WUA reduced conflicts among irrigation users at the same time increased efficiency of water use, as they set a timetable for irrigation among themselves. Replicability of the management structure will be highly effective where enough capital has been secured. In the case of Pangani, the project was supported by NORAD and they could only support some of the management components. The support was withdrawn before full management system was operational.ABBREVIATIONS
DANIDA - Danish International Development Agency.NORAD - Norwegian Agency for International Development.
NIVA - Norwegian Institute for Water Research
PWO - Principal Water Officer.
CWB - Central Water Board.
PBWO - Pangani Basin Water Office.
PBWB - Pangani Basin Water Board.
URT - United Republic of Tanzania.
WUA - Water User Association.
REFERENCES
Rapid Water Assessment: Main Report Vol.I.World Bank, DANIDA, URT 1995.
Rapid Water Assessment: Basin Retort Vol.I.World Bank, DANIDA, URT 1995.
Water Resources Management Tanzania:Pangani River Basin. NIVA 1995.