WaterAid Project Kicks Off
WaterAid. Start-up workshop in Babati Town, Tanzania.
On 2nd May, I attended WaterAid’s National Project Launch Seminar in Dar es Salaam. This exciting event provided the opportunity to launch their SHARE-funded project on urban sanitation with key WASH stakeholders in Tanzania.
To implement this project, WaterAid are working closely with the Nelson Mandela Institute of Science and Technology as well as with organisations in the host town of Babati. The project aims to develop appropriate and replicable approaches to achieve improved sustainable sanitation and hygiene in the ‘Cities of Tomorrow’. It is hoped that the findings from Babati will be transferable to other urban contexts in Tanzania.
The attendees included the Engineer Mary Mbowe (Assistant Director of the Urban Water Department in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation) as well as representatives from the World Bank, German Development Bank, NGOs and academic institutions such as NIMRI. Representatives from Babati Town Council and other Babati institutions were also in attendance.
Abel Dugange, WaterAid Tanzania’s Country Representative, opened the event by talking about his hope that Babati can set an example for all developing towns within Tanzania on sanitation. He highlighted the need to generate evidence and to develop innovations that can be adopted by others for long-lasting impact. Engineer Mary Mbowe then spoke about the importance of integrating sanitation with water supply, hygiene, water policy and laws. She noted that the project in Babati was timely in light of the National Sanitation Campaign.
There were then project presentations from Babati town representatives and the research team. The Babati Town Council representative spoke about how sanitation will be a major factor in Babati’s future development which could help Babati transition from a small town into a future city. The relevance of WASH as a cross-cutting theme which linked closely to several SDGs was picked up by several of the presenters.
The event closed with an opportunity for discussion and follow up questions.