Abstract
There is escalating salinity levels on small islands due to uncontrolled groundwater extraction. Conventionally, this challenge is addressed by adopting optimal groundwater pumping strategies. Currently, on Unguja Island (Zanzibar), urban freshwater is supplied by desalination, which is expensive and energy-intensive. Hence, desalinization cannot be afforded by rural communities. This study demonstrates that the innovative Kilimanjaro Concept (KC), based on rainwater harvesting (RWH) can remediate seawater intrusion in Unguja, while enabling a universal safe drinking water supply. The reasoning is rooted in the water balance of the whole island. It is shown that if rainwater is systematically harvested, quantitatively stored, and partly infiltrated, seawater intrusion will be reversed, and a universal safe drinking water supply will be secured. Water treatment with affordable technologies (e.g., filtration and adsorption) is suggested. The universality of KC and its suitability for small islands is demonstrated. Future research should focus on pilot testing of this concept on Unguja Island and other island nations.
Highlights
Tanzania will have technical expertise to export to other similar islands by designing, constructing, and running regional rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems for water management
Kilimanjaro Concept (KC) is a call for Tanzanians and even other Africans to rediscover and reclaim their role in promoting self-reliance in water supply
The generic ideas of KC are adapted to the particularities of a site for the first time: Zanzibar Island
Summary
There is a growing interest in establishing sustainable water management systems to secure safe drinking water supply, sustainable agriculture, and ecotourism on small islands worldwide [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. This makes data collection, processing, and analysis expensive, time-consuming, and requires external expertise This situation makes water management on small islands of developing countries a daunting task. On Unguja (ii) aims propose the most suitable approach to implementation consider new TheIsland, presentand study to: (i) develop a framework for the stakeholders In proposed approach aims to consider all stakeholders, including farmers, industrialists, and addition, integrating indigenous knowledge in such an integrated water management willIn households, to achieve sustainable water management in isolated islands worldwide. Render it efficient andindigenous sustainable.knowledge in such an integrated water management will addition, integrating render it efficient and sustainable
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