When Osama Madwar and Sudgi Azem stepped out of the propeller plane in mid-May, the Tanzanian heat hit them immediately. For the two engineers, this was a journey to a very different world – even though from a professional point of view they were in familiar territory.

As in Stuttgart, the two experts were on site to help secure a reliable supply of water. The Kahama Shinyanga Water Supply and Sanitation Authority (KASHWASA) has already accomplished a considerable feat of engineering in this respect: it pumps water from Lake Victoria in the north of Tanzania through a 600-km main supply line to eight water supply and sanitation authorities and 170 community-owned water supply organisations (COWSOs). The catchment area covers several districts with an overall population of 1 million.

The two engineers made on site visits to KASHWASA and to a local water supplier KUWASA. The focus here was on what can be done to better prevent leakages in the distribution network. The first step involved joint inspections of several plants where ultrasonic flowmeters and pressure loggers were installed over a period of several days. The data generated is now being used to plan further measures.

Netze BW Wasser GmbH is engaged in Tanzania jointly with other German supply companies (HAMBURG WASSER and hanseWasser Bremen GmbH) as part of the pilot project ‘Utility platform for strengthening partnerships of municipal utilities worldwide’. Initiated by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)), the platform is tasked with supporting cooperation and partnerships between companies in Germany and the Global South.

Impressionens

Alle Photos: Netze BW