ABSTRACT: While Tanzania is endowed with enormous natural water resources, access to clean and safe water remains a great challenge. For instance, out of twenty urban water supply authorities, only three (Arusha, Songea and Tanga) supply water continuously. This paper examines factors influencing organisation efficiency of water supply utilities in Tanzania, using Mbeya Urban Water Supply Authority (UWSA) as case in point. The unit of analysis of this study were all employees of the Mbeya UWSA. Data were collected through structured questionnaires, key informant interviews and documentary analysis. Descriptive analysis and one-sample t-test were employed as data analysis methods. The findings show that human resource competences in waste water management, civil engineering, distribution of water resources, other industrial services and agricultural water management contributes to a small extent to organisation efficiency of the utility. Shortage of funds, lack of priorities in government budget and low rate of return on investment contributes less to organisation efficiency of the utility. The use of information and communication technology moderately contributes to organisation efficiency while availability of working facilities, engagement in survey and innovation in water management contributes to a small extent to organisation efficiency of the utility. The study recommends Mbeya UWSA to take deliberate efforts to improve the attributes of human resource competences, financial resources and physical resources that have bearing effect on the organization efficiency of the utility in delivering services to customers.

ABSTRACT: Accurate estimation of discharge in rivers forms the basis of efficient flood management and surface water planning. However, continuous measurement of discharge in a stream is impractical, therefore, discharge in natural streams is generally estimated using the stage-discharge relationship. The reliability of discharge predicted from rating curve depends on the accuracy of the method used in developing stage-discharge relationship. Generalized Reduced Gradient (GRG) solver has been reported as a powerful optimization tool for handling nonlinear optimization problems, therefore, present work is an implementation of Generalized Reduced Gradient technique to determine rating curve parameters. Spreadsheet based non-linear optimization has been applied to model the rating curve for two gauging sites viz. Walton site on Choctawhatchee river and Philadelphia site on Schuylkill river, USA. The stage-discharge relationships for the two sites were also developed by using Genetic Algorithm (GA) and classical rating curve approach rating curve. Comparison of results shows that rating curve equations developed by using GRG technique are as effective as those developed by GA and more accurate than classical rating curve approach. The goodness of fit criteria for both the sites shows that the rating curves obtained by using GRG technique fit the observed data better than classical rating curve approach.