Mbeya Highlands Fm Radio is a radio broadcasting live from Mbeya city with a wide geographical coverage o f a radius o f over 200 km East West North and South, covering the whole part of Mbeya region and some other surrounding regions of Iringa region, Njombe region, Ruvuma region, Rukwa region and a new Katavi region as well. Our frequency is 92.7 MHz. Mbeya Highlands Fm radio has got three pillars which is to educate, entertain as well as informing our audience over different social, economic and political and entertainment issues hence the major issue is to improve the life of our citizens. The radio aiming at making the government more accountable to the communities they serve and making our community mores responsible for their environment. Our mission is to encourage investigative journalism so as to promote citizen participation while promoting accountability from the government officials, and helping build capacity for Mbeya Highlands staff to work effectively together to raise awareness to the society through Haki Maji radio program and other related program to support the idea. Mbeya Highlands Fm Radio was originally formed in 2006 and was formally registered as a FM station in the year 2010 from Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA).
We are based in Mbeya city in the southern highlands. Since 2010, Mbeya Highlands Fm Radio has broadcasting, producing radio programs and conducted a range of research, media and advocacy activities. This includes investigative journalism on a range of topics, including the practical reality of trying to access information from local government and the quality of public and private health services in Mbozi,Chunya and Mbarali districts. Our radio programs have helped in promoting citizens participation through different investigative reports, forums, and other many info-educative programs. Mbeya Highlands Fm Radio is currently working to increase accountability, equity and sustainability in rural water supply in Mbeya region specifically in three main pilot districts
(chunya, Mbozi and Mbarali). Through Haki Maji radio programme we are using different approach, creating opportunities for citizen monitoring in rural water supply, using investigative journalism approach to challenge local power relations through voice, debate, scrutiny, conducting research and advocacy for policy change that supports accountability.Mbeya Highlands FM radio has many programs that advocate on rural water supply and it’s our wish to extend to Haki Maji program which will cover the wide coverage.
The state of water in Tanzania
Water supply and sanitation in Tanzania is characterized by: decreasing access to improved water sources in the 2000s (especially in urban areas), steady access to some form of sanitation (around 93% since the 1990s), intermittent water supply and generally low quality of service. Many utilities are barely able to cover their operation and maintenance costs through revenues due to low tariffs and poor efficiency. There are significant regional differences and the best performing utilities are Arusha and Tanga.The Government of Tanzania has embarked on a major sector reform process since 2002. An ambitious National Water Sector Development Strategy that promotes integrated water resources management and the development of urban and rural water supply was adopted in 2006. Decentralisation has meant that responsibility for water and sanitation service provision has shifted to local government authorities and is carried out by 20 urban utilities and about 100 district utilities, as well as by Community Owned Water Supply Organizations in rural areas.
These reforms have been backed by a significant increase of the budget starting in 2006, when the water sector was included among the priority sectors of the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty MKUKUTA. The Tanzanian water sector remains heavily dependent on external donors: 88% of the available funds are provided by external donor organisations. Results have been mixed. For example, a report by GIZ notes that "despite heavy investments brought in by the World Bank and the European Union, (the utility serving Dar es Salaam) has remained one of the worst performing water entities in Tanzania.”
Slightly more than half the population of Tanzania is estimated to have access to an improved water source, with stark differences between urban areas (about 79% in 2010) and rural areas (about 44% in 2010). In rural areas, access is defined as meaning that households have to travel less than one kilometre to a protected drinking water source in the dry season.
According to data from the Household Budget Surveys 2000/2001 and 2007 access to an improved water source in mainland Tanzania even decreased from 55% in 2000 to 52% in 2007. Using a narrow definition, in 2007 around 34% of households had access to piped water, as opposed to 40% in 2000. However, using a broader definition of access that also includes standpipes and protected springs, there has been a slight increase in the proportion of households reporting a drinking water source within one kilometre. Estimates from the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) show a different trend. They show a slight decline in access from 55% in 1990 to 53% in 2010. According to these figures, access in rural areas stagnated, while in urban areas it decreased from 94% to 79% over the same period. The JMP estimates rely on extrapolations using, among others, data from the Household Budget Survey 2000/2001 and 2007, the Census of 2002 and the Demographic and Health Surveys of 1999, 2005 and 2010.
As a whole and on average, Tanzania has extensive water resources. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), in 2008 Tanzania had 96.27 km3 of renewable water resources per year (by comparison, estimated world water resources are in the order of 43,750 km3/year). This corresponds to 2,266 m3 per person and year. Water resources are however distributed unevenly - both in time and space. During the dry season, which usually lasts from June to October, even large rivers can dry up or their flow declines substantially. Some parts of the country receive, on average, up to 3,000mm of rain per year, while in other regions (such as the Dodoma Region or the Rift Valley) yearly rainfall averages 600mm.
Projections indicate that by 2025 Tanzania will experience water stress (defined as average per capita water resources below 1,500 m3) due to population growth and the resulting increase in consumption.
Tanzania has been divided into nine administrative units corresponding to the nine major river or lake basins. Basin Water Offices (BWOs) are responsible for regulating and planning the use of water resources, based on the Water Resources Management Act Nr. 11 of 2009. The water resource management section of the Water Sector Development Programme requires that their activities be carried out in line with the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management. It has however been noted that BWOs suffer from severe institutional weaknesses: they often lack necessary information, clear development plans to guide investments and support monitoring and are largely characterized by weak human capacity.
The history of water supply and sanitation in Tanzania since independence is characterized by ambitious plans that, to a large extent, failed to achieve their objectives.
Why Mbeya?
Mbeya City has very high potential, the region consists of 3 ecological zones: lowlands (within the Rift valley), plains (including Usangu wetlands) and highlands (Uporoto highlands, Livingstone mountain ranges and Mbozi plateau). These ecological zones are favourable for the development of agriculture, forestry, industry, tourist services and mining. Apart from rain fed agriculture, the City has about 90,190 hectares that are suitable for irrigation, out of which 36,449 hectares need to be developed.
The City is also rich in a variety of mineral deposits including coal, gold and industrial minerals such as limestone, marble, iron ore and phosphates. Mbeya Region has a large tourist potential with famous sites such as Lake Ngosi, Mbozi Meteorite, Ihefu wetland plains, Matema Beach, etc.
In year 2006, the economic growth rate of Mbeya City, in terms of GDP, was 7.01% which is equivalent to Tshs 486,437.00 per capita income and in the year 2007 the annual GDP growth rate was 7.16% which is equivalent to Tshs 560,773.00 per capita income.
But what is setting back our development process? It could be a lot of things, but one big major factor is availability of clean water to everyone, in rural and urban areas
Rural water supply challenges in Mbeya.
Access to clean and safe water in rural areas of Tanzania has been declining in recent years. At the same time, rural Tanzanians cite water supply as their top priority for government action and give the water sector lower satisfaction ratings than other social service sectors. National
government has recently taken steps to address this situation, increasing development funding for rural water supply more than 40% since 2006.
However, sustainability and equity challenges threaten to prevent this funding from reaching its full potential. Water point Mapping surveys commissioned by WaterAid Tanzania found that only 54% of rural water points are functioning. And by combining data from these same surveys with local government budget information, TAWASANET discovered that the majority of the new funding is being targeted at communities that already have relatively good access to water supply. According to Mbeya citizens their first priority is water although many of families are in great danger due to lack of access to clean and safe water.This has made many of citizens around Mbeya region to be unsatisfactory with their local leaders.
Recently Mbeya Highlands Fm radio through its program Kero ya Msikilizaji received 70% of
sms and calls from citizens in rural areas (Mbozi,Chunya and Mbarali) complains on issues
related to rural water supply. This clearly
shows how many rural citizens in Mbozi, Chunya and Mbarali are suffering from access to clean and safe water supply.
The Haki Maji Program is a 1 hour Program broadcasted on Every Week on Sunday 3:00 PM on Mbeya Highlands FM. Every week we visit a different village in a particular district to dissect the water shortage there and what needs to be done to fix our aim is to have the people voice their opinions and the LGAs take action on how to fix the problem, The program consists of two Segment, ‘Maji ni Uhai’ which briefs on our findings and water availability history of the area along with LGA’s views and ‘Mtaani Kwetu’ which bases on people’s views and what the people have to say about their water shortage. Every last Sunday of the month, We have live discussion and debate on Water Shortage and what needs to be done to fix it, in this area, the bring the Local Government leaders together with the people to sit down and discuss what their needs are and what needs to be done to fix the problem, in this discussion both parties discuss their setbacks .
Through the Haki Maji Program Our Journalists visit certain districts in Mbeya, Chunya, Mbozi and Mbarali and Compare the Water Budget handed to the district to the water resrouces presents, the water pipes, wells, irrigations systems, drainage to analyze if Government plans are being implemented in the rurals.
And through our findings we have to come to discover that Most of the Water Budgets handed down to these districts rarely perform the function they were supposed to. Water Pipes are shanty and some of them do not have water at all and have never been repaired, wells are dry and in some areas there exists no water resources and people are forced to utilize little water streams for all their needs, this means one village of 50,000 people utilize one water source along with their animals, this poses dangerous threat to people’s health. However the Local Government Claim they’re doing all they can to make the situation better while the question remains, what happens to all the Government funding these LGA’s receive yearly to tackle the water problem in these rural districts? These districts are the backbone of Mbeya’s Agriculture and continues problems like this could lead to a food shortage in the near future and wild urbanization in Tanzanian urban cities due to lack of availability of basic needs in these rural areas
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