Hydrological study and Water distribution re-evalution in a rural village of the Kilimanjaro Region (Tanzania)

A multidisciplinary approach has been developed including topographic, hydrological, hydraulical and agronomical knowledge in order to re-evaluate in an efficient and sustainable way the water management in small communities that aim to self-sufficiency. The approach has been applied to the benefit of a local community in Ngare Nairobi, a village of the Kilimanjaro region. The water supply for civil and agricultural purposes is still an issue in the village together with malnutrition, child mortality and lack of proper medical assistance. For this reason the Apostolic Life Community Of Priests in the Opus Spiritus Sancti (ALCP/OSS) set up a farm with a medical dispensary and a kinder garden. The approach creates a set of low cost methodologies putting together field surveys and open source software elaborations. The surveys performed doesn’t need very specialized assistance facing the problem of lack of technical support in this rural areas. The purposes are aligned with the targets of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals granting drinkable water avoiding wastes, providing solution that can be adapted to similar situations, sensitizing others local communities. The elaboration deals with Ngare Nairobi river watershed identification and evaluation leading to an average monthly discharge. The framework is abdes on open source GIS and Digital elaboration software as Q-Gis, Google earth pro and Whitebox. The investigation section is then used to design a re-evaluation of the correct usage of a precious resource as water is. The water demand model has been implemented into a water distribution system model using Epanet to allows the study of the hydraulic behaviours of the current and re-designed water distribution network. Also, the re-design phase brings to a differentiate the water quality in relationship of the use inside the buildings, with the purpose to save the best quality water and supporting the agricultural farming during dry seasons.