Tool development to measure the resilience of water supply systems in Tanzania: Economic dimension

Abstract

he world has experienced devastating disasters causing severe human life and economic losses, which is estimated to be 68.5% of the global economic losses between 2005 and 2017. Natural disasters are of great concern – they caused total damage of approximately $3.5 trillion during the past century – which is more than the global infrastructure development investment in 2014. Floods – exacerbated by climate change – are expected to cause more damages, and water supply infrastructures will continue to suffer if resilience is not improved. Measuring the economic changes affecting resilience would assist in developing risk reduction initiatives to minimise disaster losses. Such a measure is lacking for Tanzania water supply systems (WSSs). The current article applied three-stage processes – literature review, pre-assessment and Delphi technique – to develop a resilience tool to measure economic resilience for urban WSSs in Tanzania. Thematic and standard descriptive analyses were carried out during the study. Dynamism principle and three indicators – system investment proportionality, public–private partnership and cost recovery – emerged as principal components for the tool. The tool is expected to be useful during water authorities’ planning processes and budgeting in order to improve the overall WSSs resilience.