70 PER CENT OF TAP WATER IN MOSHI LOST

By Rehema Matowo, The Citizen Correspondent

Moshi. About 70 per cent of water produced by the Rombo-based Kilimanjaro Water Supply Company Limited (Kiliwater) is lost due to illegal connections, it has been learnt.

Water is also lost through leakages due to ageing of the distribution infrastructure, chairman of water consumers in Rombo District, Mr Theodory Silayo, has said.

He revealed this when presenting his report to the annual general meeting of the firm’s shareholders that the company may fail to supply water with 70 per cent of the liquid lost before reaching consumers.

Kiliwater general manager, Prosper Tesha, said the situation has been aggravated by failure by public institutions to pay the outstanding water bills, currently amounting to about Sh25 million.

But in response to the blames directed to government bodies, the acting District Executive Director, Mr Modest Lyakurwa, admitted that a large volume of water was lost and that it does not a augur well for the company.

He called on Kiliwater management to collaborate with village leaders to unmask people behind illegal connections of water which had not only led to loss of revenue, but to massive leakages also.

The company was established in the late 1990s after a water project for Kilimanjaro East which was run by the German aid agency, GIZ came to an end in 1994.

According to the GM, Kiliwater caters for more than 300,000 customers in 78 villages in Rombo District and Mwika area in Moshi Rural.

Until recently, the estimated production was 40,000 cubic metres of water from 30 sources of water, 29 of which are gravitational and one a borehole. The daily demand of water in the district is 40,000 cubic metres.

CREDIT SOURCE: THE CITIZEN