DAR ES SALAAM, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam with a population of around 4.5 million people is losing 44 percent of water pumped from main sources every day due to leakages caused by dilapidated water pipes, a senior official said on Sunday.
Makame Mbarawa, the newly appointed Minister for Water and Irrigation, ordered the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage (DAWASCO) to reduce the leakages that amounted to revenue losses of 1.7 million U.S. dollars per month.
"DAWASCO should work to fix this problem so that more people can get water and boost government revenues," Mbarawa said after he had inspected the 120-million-U.S.-dollar Upper Ruvu Water Treatment Plant expansion project in Coast Region.
The minister said upon completion of the plant expansion water being pumped out will increase from 73 million liters to 210 million liters per day.
He praised the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority for ably supervising the grand water project which will allow more than 1.7 million people to access clean and safe water.
Mbarawa said efforts should be done to fill the gap of at least 40 million liters to meet the daily demand of water in Dar es Salaam and Coast regions.
DAWASCO Technical Manager, Shaban Mkwanye, said the state-owned firm was taking various interventions to reduce water losses.
Mkwanye said water losses accounted for 57 percent in 2015 but they have now reduced it to 44 percent.
Mkwanye added plans were to reduce water losses to 30 percent by 2020, attributing the losses to poor infrastructure, including dilapidated water pipes.
"We need to replace old water meters to ensure efficiency and proper billing. Most of the water is lost due to errors in our water usage measuring devices," said the water engineer.
