Despite being a scarce and essential resource for human, plant, and animal life, water faces many challenges, including climate change, environmental degradation, and global warming, drying up natural groundwater sources.
Residents of the
Kagera Region, located in the Kagera and Nile River basins, rely on groundwater
for various social activities, including agriculture and domestic needs.
However, access has become difficult due to its decreased availability, which
has encouraged the community and authorities to act.
The overall water
access rate in the region is between 40 and 80 percent. In some areas, such as
the Kyerwa and Misenyi districts on the Ugandan border, access to clean water
is between 48 and 70 percent. This level is reflected in the number of citizens
who rely on rainy-season ponds to access water services.
Kagera Region recently
completed 73 water projects worth 62,516,688,102 shillings, thus increasing
access to clean water services in cities from 42 percent in 2015 to 65 percent
and in rural areas from 53 percent to 67 percent.
The Rural Water Supply
and Sanitation Agency (RUWASA), Kagera Region, notes that the region's goal is
to reach more than 85 percent of rural areas where groundwater is the
community's mainstay.
One
of the Misenyi district residents in Kagera region in Tanzania was found
fetching water from a pool for home use.
It is explained that
the community of Misenyi and Kyerwa, which depends on water collected from rain
or polluted aquifers, has to put medicines or calm them down for a while in the
containers, mainly so that they can be filtered and become clean in color
before using them.
According to the Kyerwa District Council website in the Kagera Region,
water service in Villages and Small Towns is available from 400 meters to 10
kilometers. The level of water access in the District has been low for various
reasons, such as people living in the mountains. In contrast, the water sources
are lower, and the deterioration of water infrastructure was built between 1974
and 1983.
The construction of
large water projects in the city which involves the construction of water
projects in Kayanga town in Karagwe district, Kyaka-Bunazi town in Misenyi
district, Rusumo Ngara project, Kemondo to Maruku project in Bukoba district,
Biharamulo town and the construction of sewage systems project in Bukoba city
are among the projects that affect people's lives and depend on groundwater as
well as Lake Victoria which also collects water from small and large rivers
that collect water from aquifers.
A picture of the Murugwanza underground spring
in Ngara, which has been improved by the water and sanitation authority after
the original spring dried up
“20 years ago, we were
not struggling to queue up at a single tap like now; our town was surrounded by
many springs that provided water all year round, but now, when you get to those
springs, you will surely cry; they are stones or mud, there is no water yet
many of us still rely on springs in our daily lives.”
This is the statement
of Mr. Shangilia Ibrahimu Manisha, a resident of Ngara town in the Kagera
region who complains about the continued drying up of underground water sources
in the Kagera River basin in Tanzania.
Mr. Manisha, whose
business is extracting and distributing water to communities in homes and
commercial areas in Ngara town, admits that there is a risk of water sources
drying up due to citizens cutting down native trees, cultivating in the
springs, and planting non-friendly trees.
Shangilia, despite being a water trader, admits that if environmental education is not provided, the community will be at risk, and educational institutions will suffer the most.
Mr. Shangilia Manisha, a water vendor in Ngara town in the
Kagera region in Tanzania
Mr.
Manisha's statement is just a tiny part of the voices of millions of people who
rely on groundwater for domestic use, business, livestock, and agriculture.
A water tank from the ground relied on by thousands of
residents of Ngara town, this tank collects water from underground in five (5)
existing sources in Murugwanza valley in Ngara district.
The
people of the Katahoka area in Kayanga town in the Karagwe district support his
statement by mentioning that they wouldn't manage their lives if there were no
underground water in their regions. The water source from Katahoka Spring has
become a refuge for hundreds of residents who depend on it for drinking water and
sanitation activities.
The
springs of Katahoka Karagwe, Kisozi, Murugwanza Ngara, and other sources in the
Kagera River basin have significantly contributed to the community's well-being
for many decades. Still, groundwater is disappearing, leaving behind a history
told by the elderly while the youth lack an understanding of the importance of
conserving groundwater sources.
Ms. Bahati Nelson, a resident of Kayanga in Karagwe
district, is among thousands of people who rely on the endangered Katahoka spring.
Ms.
Bahati Nelson testifies that the Katahoka spring water is the only source of
water for the local community, explaining that despite the community's
understanding of its importance, there is still a problem of environmental
education, and many of them pollute or destroy these sources without knowing
the effect.s
She
insists that he is among the Karagwe community members witnessing many water
sources' decline and drying up. However, they do not take any action because
they do not have the proper education. Also, the local government authorities
do not fulfill their duty to educate the public; instead, they only impose
prohibitions, which are violated by the citizens.
The
community's negative feelings on the issue of groundwater conservation are due
to the fact that the levels of climate change impacts in the Kagera region in
Tanzania are not precise compared to other parts of Africa, especially Sudan.
In
a study reported by Dr. Abdallah Shidigi under the Nile Basin Initiative, the
Kagera River basin has a good environmental condition that allows for
sufficient rainfall at a rate of 700-2000mm per year while the temperature is
below 15%.
Katahoka is an un-protected spring in the
Karagwe district only; it has remained in Kayanga town, but due to unsustainable
land use, an increase of habitat, and deforestation, there is a high
possibility of dry-up
The
residents who were found drawing water from the Katahoka spring and washing
their poles next to the source admit that environmental education still needs
to be improved and that if they had known its importance, they would not have
struggled to get water after other sources dried up.
“We
are forced to wash here because carrying water from the valley to our homes is
very difficult, and the government should increase water supply projects in
homes. Otherwise, we will continue depending on the unsustainable spring,” She
stressed Ms. Bahati Nelson, a resident of Karagwe.
Laundry
and agriculture along water sources that do not comply with water source conservation
rules and regulations are dangerous to health and the environment. Still, the
journalist who visited the Katahoka Spring in Karagwe found a group of
residents doing laundry at the water catchment.
Residents carrying out laundry activities at
the Katahoka water catchment area
Groundwater flows from the upper part of the highlands,
which has a limited storage capacity into the river, which carries this water
to the lower part of the Central Rive,r where it recharges this aquifer. Minor
subsurface flow occurs through basement complex fracture.s
The Kagera aquifer is isolated mainly from Lake Victoria and
the underground rocks that formed the lake. The contact areas between the
aquifer and the lake water occur in small areas along the tributaries of the
rivers that feed the lake (Kagera and Kisomo).
Groundwater levels along the banks of these contact areas
are very high, and the soil is completely saturated near the lake shore. The
length of the contact areas with the lake is estimated to comprise about 15% of
the total length of the aquifers along Lake Victoria. (Dr. Abdallah
Shigidi-NBI)
Kagera River Basin and Lake
Victoria. Source: NBI
Despite the perception that the public is not educated about
the importance of conserving groundwater to protect water sources prevalent
among citizens caught engaging in hazardous activities in water sources in the
Kagera River Basin, Mr. Kaiza Theonest, a farmer from Kyamtemba village in
Misenyi district, Kagera region in Tanzania, admits that groundwater is vital
to the community and is what is relied upon for agriculture, environmental and
bodily hygiene, and other human and livestock uses.
Mr. Kaiza calls on citizens living in areas with water
sources, such as rivers and lakes, to conserve the environment by avoiding
cutting down trees, cultivating in the sources, and using pesticides on plants
grown along rivers and other water sources.
Kagisha Yuston, a resident of the Misenyi district, says
that despite the government building wells and distributing water to homes,
their Kyamtemba area still needs water infrastructure. They rely on ponds and
natural springs. There have been times when these sources dried up almost the
entire year, causing the community to get water from more than 20 kilometers
away in search of drinking water.
Muwinkona Spring In Ngara Kagera, Tanzania, where more than 50 households depend for drinking water as well as gardening
“I ask the government to help us drill short and long wells
and install distribution infrastructure to reduce the nuisance the government
promises but does not deliver.”
For his part, Mr. Petro Dezideri, a resident of Nsonga Ward
on the border of Tanzania and Uganda, says that underground water sources are a
refuge, and they are currently witnessing widespread encroachment by communities
to cultivate and cut down trees in these sources.
Mr. Dezideri calls on the government to build fences in all
water sources in the Kagera River basin to protect them since other methods
have failed.
This groundwater article was prepared courtesy of the Nile Basin Initiative through Info Nile