Around the world, competition for water resources is growing. Population growth and shifting rainfall patterns mean far more demand for increasingly unreliable sources. Meanwhile, too many well-intentioned water supply systems sit unused because communities are not prepared to manage or maintain them. Even those water schemes that remain functional struggle to equitably allocate water resources, and many small-scale users who live far from water sources have been left out.
“What those projects didn’t do was to embrace the management side of it…that the water sources were going to be protected, replenished, and the water infrastructure operated and maintained correctly. That’s what sets WARIDI apart,” says Brad Carr, WARIDI project manager for Tetra Tech. “It develops the local capacity to do that.”
WARIDI is USAID/Tanzania’s five-year, $48 million Water Resources Integration Development Initiative. It works in 20 local government authorities in the Rufiji and Wami-Ruvu river basins to increase access to water, sanitation, and hygiene services and strengthen the ability of local institutions to manage water resources. In implementing its activities, WARIDI identifies opportunities to improve livelihoods and advance gender equality.
Read the full article in Global Waters on Medium.
