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van Koppen, B., Sokile, C.S., Lankford, B.A., Hatibu, N., Mahoo, H. and Yanda, P.Z., 2007. Water rights and water fees in rural Tanzania. Irrigation Water Pricing: The Gap Between Theory and Practice, 4, p.143. |
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Tanzania is an agrarian country, which ranks
151th out of 173 on the Human Development
Index (UNDP, 2002) and 80% of its 34 million
inhabitants live in rural areas, where
agriculture constitutes their primary economic
mainstay. Agriculture contributes
48% to the gross national product (GNP).
Physical water resources are relatively abundant
in the coastal and highland areas, which
receive well over 1000 mm of rainfall/year,
but most parts of the drier interior receive
less than 600 mm. An estimated 50% of all
annual surface runoff flows into the Indian
ocean and the large lakes (URT, 2002).
However, temporal and spatial variability in
rainfall and surface flows is high. Yet,
Tanzania’s level of infrastructural development
to harness water and to mitigate nature’s
variability is still very low, primarily because
of the lack of financial, technical and institutional
resources to bridge the infrastructural
gap. It is estimated that the naturally available
land and water resources are sufficient
for 2.3 million, 4.8 million and 22.3 million
ha of high-, medium- and low-irrigation
potential areas in the country respectively.
However, currently, the total area under irrigation is only 191,900 ha, out of which
122,200 ha (64%) falls under traditional irrigation
schemes (JICA/MAFS, 2003). The
remaining 36% are medium-sized centrally
managed irrigation schemes, owned by public
and private institutions, primarily for
sugarcane, rice and tea. More than 60% of
energy produced in the country is from
hydropower plants located in the Rufiji and
Pangani basins, downstream of smallholder
irrigators. Other economic sectors that utilize
the underdeveloped water resources
include livestock, forestry, mining, tourism,
industry and fisheries (URT, 2002). |
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