PANGANI BASIN WATER BOARD

Development Project. Amongst its present activities within the PRB is the development of a Joint Forest
Management (JFM) framework for the Ambangulu Forest (West Usambaras) between local communities,
local government and a nearby tea estate. Through its work with communities adjacent to the Kambai
Forest (West Usambaras), the TFCG has managed to have 600,000 trees planted. At Ngulwi (West
Usambaras), the TFCG is trying to afforest denuded slopes and establish an ecotourism programme.
International interventions
Probably the largest intervention in the Pangani River Basin (PRB) has been the River Basin Management
and Smallholder Irrigation Improvement Project (RBMSIIP). This is a twocomponent project being
implemented by the Ministry of Water and Livestock Development (MoWLD) through its Water Resources
Department; and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) through its Irrigation Department.
RBMSIIP was originally designed as a six year programme (1996/97-2001/02) funded with IDA credit
and government counterpart funding. Following a mid-term review in 2001, the project’s new completion
date was extended by a year to June 2003 to finalise planned activities.
The primary objectives of the project are to strengthen the government’s capacity to manage its water
resources in an integrated and comprehensive manner that ensures the equitable, efficient and sustainable
development of the resource and to address water-related environmental concerns at the national level
and in the Rufiji and Pangani River Basins; and, to improve irrigation efficiencies of selected smallholder
traditional irrigation schemes in the two target basins. Its major achievement to date has been a review of
the national water policy and the drafting of a new water policy. The latter was approved by the Tanzanian
Parliament in July 2002.
The UNDP-GEF East Africa Cross-border Biodiversity Project (EACBP) is a regional project funded
by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the UNDP, and, in Tanzania, is implemented by the
National Environmental Management Council (NEMC). The project works through existing administrative
structures in the region, with a strong community involvement as a backbone. The project’s major
objective is to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss at selected cross-border sites in East Africa. It has
two immediate objectives. The first is to create an enabling environment in which government agencies
and communities can jointly regulate resource use; the second is to balance the supply and demand
factors that impact upon biodiversity conservation and wise use. In the Basin area, the EACBP has been
working in the Shegena Forest Reserve, the largest forest block in the North Pare Mountains, where it
has sought to establish a JFM framework with local communities.
The Pangani River Basin Management Project (PRBMP) is generating technical information and developing
participatory forums to strengthen Integrated Water Resources Management in the Pangani Basin, including
mainstreaming climate change, to support the equitable provision and wise governance of freshwater
for livelihoods and environment for current and future generations. The Pangani Basin Water Office is
implementing the project with technical assistance from IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature),
the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) and the local NGO PAMOJA. The project is financially
supported by the IUCN Water & Nature Initiative, the Government of Tanzania, the European Commission
through a grant from the EU-ACP Water Facility, and the Global Environment Facility through UNDP.
C.7 Conflict
As mentioned above, water users are legally obliged to hold water rights issued by the Pangani Basin
Water Office. The cost of a water right depends on the end to which the water is to be put. Small-scale
users are often reluctant to apply and pay for water rights, arguing that water is a ‘gift from God’. According
to Mujwahuzi (2001) there are 1,028 water rights in the Basin with a capacity to abstract 30.7 m 3 /s. There
are, however, an additional 2,094 abstractions with a capacity to abstract about 40 m 3 /s. “The present and
potential water use conflicts [in the Basin] are the result of past uncoordinated and increased development
of the water resources of the Pangani especially above Nyumba ya Mungu Dam” (Mujwahuzi, 2001: 131).
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