Authorities in Tanzania’s semiautonomous state of Zanzibar on Saturday started rationing water in the capital due to shortages at reservoirs caused by a searing drought that has placed millions at risk of famine across East Africa, officials said.
Zanzibar’s water department said pumping at the island’s two main reservoirs has dropped from 14-million litres per day to four million litres owing to a shortage of rain.
”The only option is to start rationing the little water we get. This is the only immediate solution to help people to get little water in Zanzibar Town,” said Hemed Salim, the department’s head.
Of the island’s population of about a million people, about 350 000 living in Stone Town, the densely populated capital, will be largely affected by the rationing.
Under normal circumstances, Stone Town’s population requires about 50-million litres of water a day.
Despite being surrounded by the Indian Ocean, Zanzibar draws its water from natural springs and boreholes.
Apart from Tanzania, and Uganda, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation on Friday warned that 11-million people in Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia are on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa. — Sapa-AFP