Assessing the Impact of Climate Change on the Sustainable Water Supply in Tanzania

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the impact of climate change on sustainable water supply in Tanzania. The study employed a quantitative research approach and a descriptive research design. The study's observations of 144 and non-probability purposive sampling were employed. The study used the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model to generate the coefficients. The results showed that temperature had a negative influence on sustainable water supply and were statistically significant at the 5% level. This implies that, with a one-unit increase in temperature, sustainable water supply was expected to decline by 97.3 units while holding all other variables constant (p<0.038). However, evaporation had a negative influence on sustainable water supply and was statistically significant at 1%, implying that for every one unit increase in evaporation, the sustainable water supply was expected to decrease by 1415.5 units while holding all other variables constant (p<0.000). The rainfall had a negative effect on sustainable water supply and was statistically significant at the 1% level, which means that for every one unit increase in rainfall, the sustainable water supply was expected to decline by 1.75 units while holding all other variables constant (p<0.003). The study concludes that water resource management can mitigate the effects of climate change. The study recommends that the RUWASA management should strive to harvest water rainfall in order to have water during the drought periods while keeping water treatment facilities readily available to enhance water quality.