The Minister for Water, Prof Jumanne Maghembe has pledged to inject an additional 300m/- this financial year to the Water Development and Management Institute (WDMI), to enable water technicians in the country meet cadre shortage.
Minister for Water and Irrigation, Professor Jumanne Maghembe
He made the pledge in the city on Thursday, during the launch of the Registered Trustees of the Water Technician Fund (WTF), which aims at addressing the shortage of human resources in the water sector in the country.
He said earlier the government was injecting 940m/- as grant annually to run the institute and one billion shillings as salaries for its staff, but has decided to contribute additional amount to increase the enrolment from 500 to 700 students.
He said various researches conducted indicate that there is an immediate need of 3,000 water technicians in the country, while the number of water technicians graduating at the WDMI stands at 90 per year on average, the number which is still inadequate.
“If no support to initiatives of this kind is provided, the projected sector goal will take very long time frame beyond the planned horizon or even will not be easily attained, hence the importance of providing the Water Technician Fund in our country,” he said.
However, he challenged the WMDI to groom engineers and also help them to teach them how to run small projects, saying some have not trained properly on how to turn the bolt properly.
“You must make sure that you train the students to rise to the occasions by giving them professional teaching, conduct research and offering excellent public services,” said Prof Maghembe.
Earlier, WTF Chairperson, Dr Diana Mwiru said the fund will revolve to address problems that students from poor families face, including increasing the number of female students who graduate from the institute.
Dr Mwiru said the fund requires 4.6bn/- to support 1,500 students in a period of five years, in a bid to boost the country’s water sector which anticipates rapid growth that needs to be sustainable.
“Considering the benefits to be generated, this amount is reasonable and it will have value to the Tanzanians society,” she said.
Germany Ambassador Representative, Ms Claudia Kraemer said implementation of Water Reforms will require more and better qualified staff, where more technicians will be needed to work as engineers in the water resources management.
By NELLY MTEMA, Tanzania Daily News
