GLORIA Tibaijuka and Halima Muhunzi, aged 16, are third form students at the Kibaha Girls' Secondary School owned by the Kibaha Education Agency in Pwani region.

These are the overall winners of the Young Scientists Awards (YST) for the year 2022. These young scientists show the importance of water because the sages said, "Water is life."

These young women who are budding scientists have participated in research about the Ruvu River Basin that supplies water in the regions of Dar es Salaam, Pwani and Morogoro.

The research was done after the students discovered that the human activities that are going on at the edge of the valley cause a shortage of water, thus contributing to the Dar es Salaam Clean Water and Environmental Sanitation Authority (DAWASA) to supply water according to demand.

A panel of scientists supported through the Organization of Young Scientists (YST), reviewed the research and the recommendations the students gave to the government to protect the source and find other sources of water.

As a result of his research and recommendations, Tibaijuka and Muhunzi have become the overall winners of the YST awards for the year 2022.

In the awards given on December 8, the students were officially announced as YST leaders and given scholarships for their studies at the University and the Karimjee Jivanjee Institute (KJF) to make them smart scientists who will help Tanzania to provide answers to the challenges facing society.

Explaining about the project, Muhunzi says the Ruvu River Basin is one of the largest basins in East Africa.

It is 18,000 kilometers long.

The areas of Mgeta, Ngerengere collect water and pour it into the river which is the basis for water supply for various social and economic uses.

"The Ruvu River Basin is trusted by a large percentage of residents of Dar es Salaam, Kibaha and several areas of Morogoro City.

The major use of this river is in industries, household needs and irrigation agriculture," says Muhunzi.

He says due to the importance of the river, they thought about the current situation and what it will be like in the future in terms of water quality and volume requirements.

"The aim of this project we researched was to check the resilience of the Ruvu pumping station located in the Ruvu River Basin to meet the needs of the Coast and Dar es Salaam regions in all aspects," he says.

The project looked at the current needs and the factors that can affect the availability and distribution of the expected level of water in the basin to ensure that it goes along with the increase in population and economic development in the coming years.

He says the methods they used to collect information was to prepare questionnaire questions that their classmates from Kibaha and Ruvu Secondary School participated in answering after visiting the river.

In addition, they visited Dawasa to obtain information on water collections for the year and distribution for five years, to conduct interviews with the workers at the Ruvu Station, farmers on the banks of the river and agricultural officials.

On the part of Tibaijuka, he says that in the project they noticed a large increase in people in those regions that depend on water from the Ruvu River.

He says in 2025 the number of people who will be dependent on the river will be more than 63.8 percent.

"For the year 2020, the water demand in each sector was 410,568,487 cubic meters per year and Dawasa has distributed water with 155,515,724 cubic meters from the Ruvu River and from other sources has made the average supply of water 255,052,763 cubic meters per year equal to the deficit of 62.1 percent," says Tibaijuka.

He says that the results show that the demand for water is increasing in every region, with a large percentage relying on the river for production.

The student says the demand for water will increase by 43.4 percent by 2025 from 284,453,463 cubic meters in 2011 to 502,213,380 cubic meters in 2025.

He says the production and supply of water to Dawasa will increase from 7.3 percent to 11.6 percent.

"This difference between the demand and supply of water will directly affect economic and social activities if we continue to use only the Ruvu River as a source of water," he insists.

Tibaijuka adds that: "I am very happy to win this award because it is something that gave me hope that I will win."

The problem that exists in this river is that economic activities including industrial, energy use and agriculture cause damage to this river."

As a budding scientist, she has encouraged other female students to make sure they use the opportunities available to develop various scientific ideas as YST looks at ideas aimed at solving problems in society.

Explaining more about the project, Muhunzi says the lack of water once happened in 2020 because of the drop in the water level in the river.

"Dawasa will not be able to supply water in these regions for the next five years if the relevant community continues to use this source only, Tanzania has many sources of water so they should be used to supply water," says Muhunzi.

According to Muhunzi, it is time to provide education to people who are involved in various activities along this river so that they understand how to take care of this source by planting trees to help the production of rain.

He says they have advised the government to find a permanent source of water to supply water only in Dar es Salaam Region because there are many people, many economic and industrial activities, so using that river alone will not bring the expected success.

"We have advised the Ruvu River to be used to supply water in the Coastal and Morogoro regions, also to build large wells for water storage and for farmers to use modern methods of water storage for agriculture," he insists.

The budding researcher explains that, when they visited the river, they noticed that there are people who cut trees for firewood and charcoal, livestock feeding on the banks of the river and there is a factory near the river that has been allowed to work by the NEMC institution.

However, he says that girls have many things they are unable to do due to fear, so he advises them to believe in themselves because girls can also do bigger things.

He says that after finishing his education, he wants to become a surgeon and be a leader who will solve the challenges of the community.

The teacher of the students, Paul Balibate, says they developed their own idea and carried out scientific research as he directed them to follow the steps to carry out the projects including what they discovered and what they advise as budding scientists.

He says there were many students who had different ideas and were sent to YST and only that idea from that school passed and they did well and won.

"As their leader and coordinator of YST Coast Region, I have enjoyed the victory of these students;

It inspires me to continue my work.

"We continue to advise female students to participate in these competitions because even children themselves can create their own ideas," says Mwalimu Balibate.

He says that YST gives students the ability to find challenges and solve them, so they create many researchers in the country for development.