Prof  Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka

Lake Victoria pact to benefit three Tanzanian Towns!

LVWATSAN at UN-HABITAT: My congratulations

Please read my story and give your views and comments.

I was delighted to read in the Tanzanian Guardian of Monday 18th April 2011 that Five Eastern African Nations have signed a grant transfer agreement to facilitate access to USD 129 million from the African Development Fund to support the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Programme (LVWATSAN) Phase II. It is reported that outgoing EAC Secretary General Juma Mwapachu signed on behalf of the Community in Nairobi. The East African Development Fund is contributing 89 per cent while the five partner states will contribute 11 percent. The towns to benefit include Muyinza, Kayanza, and Ngozi in Burundi; Kericho, Keroka and Isebanta-Sirari in Kenya; Nyangatane, Kayonza, and Nyanza in Rwanda, Geita, Sengerema and Nansio in Tanzania as well as Mayuge, Ntungamo and Buwama-Kayabwe-Bukakata cluster in Uganda.

As the originator of the initiative, I am really delighted to see this positive conclusion finally reached and wish to take some time to congratulate the EAC member states for this great step that will bring water, sanitation and better urban planning in these secondary towns thus achieve the MDGs. I thank the African Development Bank President, Dr. Donald Kaberuka for giving me a sympathetic ear when I approached him to consider providing support for this programme within the framework of the EAC.

I feel I should give you some background information on how this success story has not been easy at all and has taken a lot of time and effort by many people and supporters.

The LVWATSAN finds its origins in the World Summit for Sustainable Development held in September 2002 in Johannesburg. Under its Water for African Cities Program, UNHABITAT was organizing the Water Dome and also lobbying very vigorously for the inclusion of sanitation target into the declaration. I was the new Executive Director (had been appointed in September 2000) and was focusing on improving the relevance and effectiveness of the programs I had inherited. We were joined by Senator Tim Worth, Chairman of the UN Foundation set up by American philanthropist, Tim Turner. The UN Foundation had donated USD 3 million to UNHABITAT in 1998 to set up a pilot programme for Water for African cities programme (WAC). At a joint press conference we held to report on our achievements, Senator Worth remarked that of the USD 400 million that the UN Foundation had given out, the USD 3 million given to UN-HABITAT had paid highest returns. Itself conceived as a capacity building programme, WAC was leveraging follow up investments in water and sanitation in big cities such as Dakar, Jo’burg in huge amounts. At that Summit, UNHABITAT was launching a similar initiative for the Asian region. In that regard, I was signing an MOU with President Tadao Chino of the Asian Development Bank for a follow-up investment of USD 500 million for WAC-Asia that would be supported by the Netherlands! It was a positive atmosphere.

Encouraged by the success for the big cities, I saw the need to emulate the work in secondary cities. However, while follow up investments in big cities can be financed by loans from international development banks, it would be cumbersome to replicate the same for secondary towns outside government budgets. I needed to rely on grants for regional programs. I decided that the best way would be to find an eco-system that was fragile but of strategic importance where interventions in water and sanitation would also find environmental conservation appeal that is more attractive to donors. I also was searching for innovative programs to fight poverty and implement the MDGs by the agency I had been elected to lead, namely UNHABITAT.

Against this background, I conceived LVWATSAN as a programme that should bring water and sanitation to the people in secondary towns. I had observed and was concerned about “grand standing to preach about water and sanitation standards to people who have no access to these basic services at all”. The concept was simple. Within the framework of the Water for African Cities Program that UNHABITAT was implementing in large cities, secondary towns around Lake Victoria Basin would have their water supply systems rehabilitated or improved where they existed or established if they did not exist as a basis for achieving the MDGs targets and maintaining them beyond 2015. I argued that water supply in Africa has in fact not so much been neglected but rather mismanaged. I could site numerous examples, including from my home town where water schemes have been built but never been properly managed and maintained, so they have tended to collapse after the donors left. LVWATSAN would not only bring water and sanitation to the community but would ensure the community takes responsibility for sustainable operation and maintenance. So, once the scheme is rehabilitated/established, capacity building for its operation would follow. You would think this is straight talk!

But alas, several prospective donors and some of their consultants even ridiculed me as being too parochial, too operational instead of being normative, to have vested interests since am an East African and other such negative set-backs faced by people hailing from the developing countries when they bring their own local insights onto the international development agenda. It is never easy!

However, I did not give these kind of negative remarks a chance and just kept moving forward with the program. In October of 2002 in Brussels I launched the Water and Sanitation Trust Fund to facilitate the replenishment of resources for WAC activities. I encouraged the Director of the Water and Sanitation program at UNHABITAT, then Dr. Kalyan Ray and his very able team composed of Dr. Graham Alabaster and Mr. Andre Dzkus to push on with the program. Graham was in charge of the Lake Victoria program while Andre was to emulate the same project in the Mekong Delta of Asia, another hub of poor nations in a strategic but fragile eco-system where I wished to work There we started the MEKONG-WATSAN. Thanks to their hard work and my perseverance, I managed to launch the LVWATSAN programme at the Stockholm Water Conference on 16th August, 2004 flanked by the respective Ministers of Water from East Africa. Tanzania was represented by Hon. Edward Lowasa then Minister for Water.

However, after launching the programme in Stockholm resource mobilization for the USD 52 million that was required to cover all the initial 15 towns falling under phase I (see Map 1 attached) proved quite difficult. A negative campaign to discredit the program was set in motion by those who from the outset had never wanted to see it materialize. It was with the assistance of positive and forward looking water officials in the Hague, notably Joep Biljmer and Dick Van Ginhoven, that I managed to get the support of the then Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation, Ms M. Van Gool who contributed seed capital of USD 15 million for LVWATSAN (Phase I). Out of the original 15 towns only 6 towns namely Bukoba, Muleba and Mutukula in Tanzania, Kyotera and Masaka in Uganda and Homa Bay and Kisii in Kenya could be covered. Later Bunda (in Tanzania) was added after Bert Diphoorn who took over from Kalyan Ray as Director managed to get additional support from the Hague. I will never forget the historical town hall meetings held to lauch the programs in the pilot towns where the EAC Water Ministers of the day namely, Ms.Martha Karua of Kenya, Ms. Maria Mutagamba of Uganda and Mr. Anthony Diallo, the Deputy Water Minister of Tanzania toured the 6 towns. In all these towns people marveled to see what they called “the EAC in action for the first time” touring small towns in unison!

Against this background, I decided to approach Secretary-General Juma Mwapachu of the EAC to incorporate the project under his own programs and see if we could embark on joint fund raising. We signed an MOU on 20th December, 2007. In this regard, I appointed Mr. Lawrence Ishengoma, an experienced Tanzanian diplomat as UNHABITAT Water and Sanitation Ambassador or High Level Representative to follow up coordination work in the respective countries as we pushed the project forward. On such an auspicious occasion, I wish to take this opportunity to thank some key people who worked with me to make LVWATSAN a success. Professor Mark Mujwahuzi of the University of Dar es salaam was the Chief Technical Adviser of the program and played a critical role to get the program moving in Tanzania. Mr. Peter van Dongen was the very first consultant who put the initial design together and in such record time working for Graham Alabaster.

Above all I thank the EAC Heads of State who gave me an audience at the summit in Arusha in 2006 and decided to incorporate LVWATSAN of UNHABITAT as their own program. This paved the way for President Kaberuka, following our meeting in Kigali on the occasion of the Parliamentarians Gender Conference held there in June in 2008. He agreed to my request that we expand the program to include Rwanda and Burundi, the new EAC members states.

I urge the people in the benefiting towns to realize fortune that has come their way and to maintain the water and sanitation services that will be provided. It is my hope that the women and children in the benefiting towns will be given a voice in the management of the utilities for sustainability.

It is my life as an African girl child, fetching water for my mother and the family in the village before joining boarding schools that gave me inspiration and passion to work on water and sanitation issues diligently and seriously. That is why I was able to conceive this program when I had the chance. I hope it makes a difference to the girls of the day and make things better for them!

Water is life sanitation is dignity.

Posted by on Apr 20 2011. Filed under Constituency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

1 Comment for “Lake Victoria pact to benefit three Tanzanian Towns!”

  1. Dear Madam, I am so humbled to be recognized on your website for my contributions to the LVWATSAN programme!
    with all good wishes
    Graham

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