From The Guardian

Tanzania’s water problems are only too obvious. Over one third of East Africa’s largest country is semi-arid. With few rivers and diminishing levels of clean groundwater, 48 percent of its 45 million citizens lack access to safe water. The consequent productivity losses, health costs and premature deaths (an estimated 26,000 Tanzanians die of diarrhoeal disease every year) are put at £206m – around 1 percent of the country’s total GDP.

Less obvious is what can be done about it. It’s not that Tanzania has ignored the problem. The country undertook a major reform of its water sector in 2002 and currently boasts a comprehensive strategy aimed at delivering universal access to safe water by 2025.

The 2002 reforms opened the door to greater involvement of the private sector in the day-to-day business of water delivery. A host of new local utilities have cropped up as a result. Tanzania’s water sector has also become the focus of foreign donor support. German state aid agency Giz, for example, recently helped with the setting up of an independent regulator for the water sector.

Written by Oliver Balch/Read more at The Guardian