ARUSHA, Tanzania, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania has secured a 25 million U.S. dollars loan from the World Bank for water projects in the country's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, a senior official said on Wednesday.
Isaac Kamwelwe, Tanzania's Minister for Water and Irrigation, told the National Assembly in the capital Dodoma that the money will be spent on ending water challenges in Dar es Salaam, a city with more than 5 million people.
The minister said that most of the water challenges in Dar es Salaam will soon become things of the past when the execution of water projects starts.
Kamwelwe said the projects will be started in the coming financial year.
The minister was responding to questions from the Members of Parliament (MPs) from Dar es Salaam and other regions who wanted to know what the government was doing to end water problems in their different areas.
According to a recent World Bank report, water scarcity facing Tanzania could derail the east African nation's growth and poverty reduction efforts.
"Tanzania needs to urgently improve the management of its water," said the World Bank report.
In its report, the World Bank said against the rapidly expanding economy and population in Tanzania, renewable per capita freshwater resources dropped over the past 25 years from more than 3,000 cubic meters per person to around 1,600 today.
