GIZ: Strengthening water governance and wastewater management in Tanzania (Part II)
In Part I, we shared how our work in Tanzania began: bringing public and private actors together around water stewardship, with the goal of co-developing practical tools for industries. The project, carried out with GIZ Tanzania and the Alliance for Water Stewardship under the Green and Smart Cities SASA Programme, has now come to a close with an institutional handover to TISEZA. Here is what we did, what we learned, and where the work goes from here.
Over the past months, we facilitated workshops in Mwanza and Tanga with regulators, utilities, basin water boards and companies. Together, these stakeholders shaped the Water Stewardship Standard Operating Procedures and Stewardship Action Plans for Tanzania’s industrial zones. South Africa’s industrial zone framework served as a useful benchmark, but the final tools were built with Tanzanian stakeholders and for Tanzanian realities, with a focus on the day-to-day constraints companies face on the ground.
One of the most valuable outcomes was the dialogue itself. The workshops created a space where public and private actors could discuss shared water challenges outside of a regulatory or transactional setting, something several participants described as rare. We also learned that awareness differs: many companies already knew their water risks from experience, and what they needed most was a shared framework to act on them. Trust between the two sides is still being built, and moving from “discussing together” to “acting together” will take time and repeated engagement.
Another lesson stayed with us throughout the project: a tool cannot exist on its own. An SOP, however well designed, only creates value if an institution owns it, uses it and keeps it alive. This is why the final phase of the project focused on finding the right institutional home.
In July, the SOPs and SAPs were formally handed over to the Tanzania Investment and Special Economic Zones Authority (TISEZA), during a two-day orientation workshop in Morogoro with staff from its One Stop Service Centre. Framing water stewardship around investment attractiveness, compliance facilitation and Tanzania’s national development priorities resonated much more than a purely technical approach would have. This handover is a first step. Building ownership across the institution, including at leadership level, will require continued effort.
In parallel, AWS brought together government and private sector representatives in Morogoro to explore how an AWS Accelerator could work in Tanzania. Participants prioritised the Coast Catchment of the Wami Ruvu Basin, with the Wami Ruvu Basin Water Board and TISEZA proposed as joint leads. It is encouraging to see these efforts connect and build on each other.
Water governance is not built through one project or one document. It grows through relationships, shared ownership and institutions willing to carry the work forward. We are grateful to GIZ Tanzania, AWS, TISEZA and all the stakeholders in Mwanza, Tanga and Morogoro who made this collaboration possible.
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