Water Point Mapping for the Analysis of Rural Water Supply Plans: Case Study from Tanzania

In Tanzania, like in many other countries in the Sub-Saharan region, the government is implementing an ambitious rural water supply and sanitation plan (RWSSP) to increase access to water from 53% in 2005 to 90% by 2025. This paper exploits water point mapping (WPM) data to evaluate the principles underlying the design of this program and reveals some challenges for the rapid increase of access to water. The data set of water points analyzed accounts for 15% of the country’s total rural population. The results show that the inaccuracy of the baseline used for the program design, difficulties faced by underserved districts in keeping the water points functional, and the differences between the expected and real long-term functionality of the water points, especially for hand pumps, are the primary threats to the achievement of the targets. It is suggested that more effort be put into capacity building, particularly the supervision of construction, and the support of community-owned management during the first years of operation.