The African Development Bank (AfDB) has recently approved a USD 211 millions loan for improvements on water and sanitation services to decrease health care costs associated with water-related illnesses in Arusha, northern region of Tanzania.
The program’s investment totals USD 235 millions, of which the Tanzanian Government is funding USD 24 millions.
The program aims at Arusha since it is one of the largest and fastest growing cities in Tanzania in terms of population.
At an average yearly rate of 7.4% in the last three years, Arusha’s population has grown from 416,442 in 2012 to 516,000 at the end of 2014 according to Arusha Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (AUWSA) statistics.
So far, AUWSA has expanded its service area from 93 square km in the year 2000, to 208 square km as of 2014.
However it needs improvements in existing water sources to reduce the gap between water demand and supply estimated in 93,270 cubic meters per day and 35,000 – 45,000 cubic meters per day.
In addition, the current 33,106 water supply connections only serves 70.4% of the population in the Central Business District while the overall coverage is below the 44% according to the AfDB.
Regarding to sewerage connections, the current 4,191 connections representing 33 km of piped sewerage only help to serve 3.9% of Arusha’s population according to AUWSA’s last annual report.
With the current fund raised, AUWSA expects to successfully expand water and sewerage networks to cover the whole city and to reach a safe disposal of waste and water.
