One million residents to gain from Lake Victoria project

At least million Tanzanians will benefit from a US $178-million project to supply residents of the country's four northern and central regions with water from Lake Victoria, Water and Livestock Development Minister Edward Lowassa said on Tuesday. At a ceremony in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, to inaugurate the project, Lowassa said the first phase, to cover 1,755 km of pipeline through Mwanza and Shinyanga regions, would benefit 450,000 people by the end of December 2006. He said the second phase, to cover the regions of Tabora and Singida by 2025, would benefit an estimated one million people in the semi-arid areas. President Benjamin Mkapa laid a foundation stone for the project.