The President of Zanzibar, Dr. Hussein Ali Mwinyi has honoured the Executive Director of Global Water Partnership Tanzania, Dr. Victor Kongo with a Leadership Award for his relentless efforts in providing technical support to the water and sanitation sector in Zanzibar. Dr. Kongo received the award during the opening session of the 2023 Zanzibar Water Conference that was held from 16th to 17th August 2023.
“I am really humbled by the honour bestowed on me by the President. This is a testament that people are watching what we do with passion to support humanity. We should not relent in doing good to our communities and nations at large,” Dr. Kongo said upon receiving the award.
Dr. Kongo has been instrumental in supporting the water and sanitation sector in Zanzibar, where he led the process of developing the Zanzibar Water Investment Programme (2022-2027). The President of Zanzibar launched the Programme in March, 2022. Thereafter, the Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals in Zanzibar requested the technical support of Dr. Kongo in implementing the programme.
The Programme has more than sixty activities and one of the key areas which Dr. Kongo supported the Ministry was in developing concept notes for key activities where the majority of the concept notes have been accepted by development partners for funding.
The other important activity that Dr. Kongo coordinated was instituting the annual Zanzibar Water Conference as a platform for professionals from all over the world to share ideas, best practices and showcase technological advancement in water and sanitation. Specifically, the conference was established as knowledge sharing platform for appreciating and appraising the progress made in the implementation of the Zanzibar Water Investment Programme. The conference has already been instituted and the second international edition was successfully convened in 2023.
Dr. Kongo has also been leading national efforts on reviewing the 2004 Zanzibar Water Policy as well as coordinating Development Partners in the Water and Sanitation sector in order to enhance cross-sectoral collaboration and avoid duplication of efforts in Zanzibar.