Training of Tanzanian engineers in India

The training of engineers and other professionals in specialised fields is an expensive programme. It is even more expensive in developing countries where shortages and lack of well qualified teachers, training materials, teaching aids and equipment are not available. Tanzania like any other developing country was faced with shortage of engineers and other professionals when it became independent in 1961. In 1970 when the country had decided to launch a massive programme of trying to provide clean and potable water to her people by the year 1991 the situation with engineers available in the Ministry had not changed very much. This paper therefore attempts to explain how the Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals (MWEM) achieved this programme by launching a crush training programme of training engineers outside the country. It gives an account of how the idea was conceived and explains how financial support was obtained from Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA).