Public Water Supply and Sanitation Authorities for Strategic Sustainable Domestic Water Management. A Case of Iringa Region In Tanzania

Mesia Lufingo

doi:10.3390/j2040029

Abstract

Water supply is a mandatory service for the majority from respective legal public water utilities, and its sustainability reflects implementations of best management strategies at a local level. The objectives of this study were (i) to assess current approaches used in water quality and quantity management and (ii) propose a sustainable domestic water management strategy. This was achieved through secondary water data trends, on-site water quality assessments, visits of water supply and sanitation authorities, and assessment of their performances. It was observed that water supplied in rural-based authorities was quite different from that supplied in an urban setting as far as quality and quantity are concerned; urban-based supplies are more affordable to users than rural ones. A new strategy on water management is presented for sustainable water supply; it is based on controlling groundwater abstractions and preference of surface water in public water supplies. Rural water supply management must learn several practices realized in urban supplies for the betterment of services for the majority of the users.

Highlights

Water is considered to be conserved by the hydrological cycle [1,2] and covers 75% of the planet earth, in which only 2.5% is freshwater [3]
The case study is characterized by many surface water sources, whereas other regions with drought dominance may lack representations, especially in the water quality section, which can be characterized in a different manner than the one presented
Rural based supplies selected in this study were based on recently developed projects (≤1 year), which could have presented unique information compared to old projects that still operate at the same level and locality; their selection was a function of availability of a treatment practice, i.e., chlorination

Summary

Introduction

Water is considered to be conserved by the hydrological cycle [1,2] and covers 75% of the planet earth, in which only 2.5% is freshwater [3]. Major sectors that are essential for economic growth are agriculture, industries, and domestic water supplies [7,8]. While all countries are trying to account for the freshwater sustainability dilemma [18,19,20,21,22,23], international policies favor virtual water exploitation as all countries are relatively economically interdependent [24,25,26,27]. Freshwater use has been given first priority for basic human needs under domestic water supply [37], and the environment receives second priority, but other sectors,

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion