Water Supply and Demand in Bukoba, Tanzania. Implications for Local Economic Development

Abstract

A usual market system is the interaction between supply and demand set in a certain (preferably enabling) environment in which different market players take part. There are various market sectors providing products and services, ranging from manufactured goods to tourism. However, water sector does not follow standard market game rules, because traditionally it was regarded as a social good subject to natural monopoly and under the control of public utilities. This view began to change in last decades, and it was, not without discussion, acknowledged that water should be recognised as an economic good, as agreed in the Dublin Principles in 1992. Together with this gradual shift in thinking, demand-driven approach to water started to take the place of supply-driven solutions. This approach to water sector has been applied in this study of water supply and demand in Bukoba, Tanzania, which has recently profited from the construction of improved water infrastructure under Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Programme run by UN-HABITAT. The project aims at maximising the economic opportunities arising from the provision of water infrastructre and seeks to spur economic development in the project towns. This thesis seeks to identify necessary interventions for this to become the reality in Bukoba.