Water Point Program

The MSABI water point program aims at improving access to safe water for communities in remote rural and peri-urban areas. MSABI boreholes aim to target deep aquifer water separated from surface pollution and contaminated shallow aquifers. Boreholes are drilled manually and rope pumps installed on drilled boreholes offer an affordable solution to access safe water. Pumps are manufactured locally with materials available through efficient supply chains.

The program is demand driven which means community clients must first decide they would like a water point and then apply for the service. In doing so, control over user group formation, land issues, ownership and management is decided and controlled by local community members with advice provided by MSABI. Capital costs for a new water point are shared between the community and MSABI. MSABI promotes water point privatization and creation of small scale water businesses, whereby water point owners sell water to their neighboring community.

In four years of operation, MSABI has completed the installation of 310 new water points, providing safe water to an estimated 64,000 Tanzanians. A recent survey of randomly selected MSABI water points demonstrated that 95 percent are functional and 5 percent need simple repair. Despite the relatively young age of our installations, this provides strong evidence for the increased sustainability of our interventions compared to conventional approaches.

A streamlined 13 Point Quality Assurance (QA) program and an efficient monitoring and evaluation system have been developed over the years. The QA program covers all aspects of a new water point installation. This system is new and innovative and sets new standards within the sector. Elements of this system are currently being adopted by other organizations within the sector (nationally and internationally).

Currently we increase sustainable access to water supply by poor rural and small town dwellers across Kilombero, Malinyi, Ulanga and Kilosa Districts.