The Government of Tanzania and the French Development Agency (AFD) have recently signed a concessional loan agreement of EUR 70 million to finance the Clean Water and Sanitation Project of the Morogoro Urban Water Supply And Sanitation Authority (MORUWASA).
The project will benefit about 700,000 people in the Morogoro municipality, east of the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, who will access clean and safe water.
Upon completion, the project will increase the local water supply from 37,000 cubic liters a day to 108,000 cubic liters, and will also increase access to sewage services from 5% to 15%.
At the signing ceremony, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Dotto James, said the initiative will contribute to attaining the government’s requirement to supply 126,253 cubic liters per day by 2035, to cover 95% to the Morogoro residents.
For her part, the Resident Director of AFD in Tanzania, Stephanie Mouen, promised that the agency would continue to cooperate with Tanzania to ensure that it achieves its goals for the improvement of the quality of life of citizens, especially access to water.
She also reminded that in the last 20 years AFD invested about EUR 258 million in Tanzania to promote sustainable growth and poverty reduction.
Slightly more than half the population of Tanzania is estimated to have access to an improved water source, with stark differences between urban and rural areas.
According to the country’s National Five Years Development Plan 2015/16-2020/21, access to safe water and sanitation in urban areas should increase from 86% to 90%, and in rural areas from 68% to 80%.
