Water shortage hits Zanzibar

Authorities in Tanzania's semiautonomous island of Zanzibar have prohibited indefinitely the unnecessary use of water, in a move to curb an acute scarcity. "We are now facing a shortage of water because of a prolonged drought; gardeners, car washers and manufactures of building bricks must minimise their use of water," Hemed Salim, director of the Zanzibar Water Department, said on Tuesday. He said guidelines on the conservative use of water would soon be made public for home and industrial users. Water is already being rationed on Stone Town, the largest urban centre on the island. He said Stone Town's 350,000 residents normally require about 50 million litres of water per day, "but the production is currently very low". The island's major source of drinking water is from two springs, but it also draws from boreholes and wells. These springs service the island's Urban-West region and Stone Town normally with 14 million litres a day. Now, because of the drought, it provides four million litres a day. Water shortages are frequent but the prevailing drought in East Africa has worsened the situation for the island's 981,754 people. "We have to wait long for water at night, or go look for water early morning," Amina Hussein, a housewife and mother of three, told IRIN in Stone Town. She pays the local equivalent of US $0.20 for a 20-litre container of water. Despite donor pressure in early 1990s for Zanzibaris to pay for water, the government still provides it free of charge. However, that is about to change. Salim said a new billing regime had been prepared and was awaiting government implementation. Authorities on mainland Tanzania have also raised concern about the drought, which has raised fears of hunger and electricity rationing. Power load shedding would certainly affect Zanzibar, which receives three-quarters of its supplies from the mainland. The country's five major dams are unable to generate power at optimum levels due to the drop of river water levels that feed into reservoirs.