Informing the Debate: Water Access in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Given the path this blog series is beginning to take (looking into the implications of rapid urbanisation and the adopted solutions in urban regions among Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)), I have decided it is an appropriate time to introduce a site-specific case-study example in order to supplement the blog posts I have done so far. Having spent some time in Tanzania, and more specifically Dar es Salaam, I want to take this opportunity to enrich my understanding of the country and city, knowing the nation has sizeable problems in regard to the provision of water services.

In developing countries world over, society’s access to safe drinking water continues to be a major challenge for policymakers and governing bodies. This unfortunate situation of access to safe drinking water seems to be exaggerated among nations in SSA, where just 61% of the population have access to improved water sources (UNICEF/WHO, 2012). Dar es Salaam, in particular, suffers from a limited access to safe drinking water, but these insufficiencies are far from new. The city’s inadequate water facilities date back to the colonial period and have not been on the receiving end of maintenance or development many times since. Thus, for most of the citizens in the city, access to safe water is poor, and in some cases nonexistent (Smiley, 2013).

The Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority (DAWASA) is the primary supplier of piped water in the city. The corporation owns all of the water infrastructure in Dar es Salaam. However, there are many deficiencies in the system. According to a recent report by Nganyanyuka et al. (2014), just shy of half the water produced reaches its intended target, as it is often lost as a result of decaying infrastructure and illegal extractors. This tells us the situation has not changed a great deal since the turn of the century, where, at that time, fewer than half the population received their water from DAWASA (Kjellen, 2000).

The Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority logo. Source: DAWASA

The city is also subject to rapid urbanisation; a phenomenon which is making the condition progressively worse for urban dwellers. As I mentioned in my last post, rapid urbanisation in SSA inflicts a significant challenge for the development of improved safe water supply sources to the extent that countless cities throughout SSA are struggling to meet basic infrastructural needs in regard to safe water. This is the case for Dar es Salaam; the city experiences great inadequacies in the provision of water as a major proportion of the population reside in unplanned communities, where it is notably harder to provide piped water supplies (Smiley, 2013).

This case study makes me think back to the question I originally posed on my first blog post: will disparities between Sub-Saharan Africa and more developed regions across the world widen, or will this age of rapid urbanisation bring with it solutions and opportunities?

For all the shortcomings with the formal provision of water by DAWASA, a number of alternative means to gain access to safe water have arisen. Water vending has become a major sector in the informal economy and a way to provide water in a city where pipe distribution is not available to all citizens (Nganyanyuka et al., 2014). An influential study by Kjellen (2000), suggested vending should be an interim solution, regarding the practice highly:

The private, commercial and community initiatives compensate for the shortcomings of the public water distribution system, and should be seen as a complement towards meeting city dwellers’ demand.

However, the water access situation in Dar es Salaam is still inefficient and ineffective. More recent studies by Sarah Smiley (2013) and Nganyanyuka et al. (2014) highlighted the fact many households were supposedly the recipients of clean water on paper, yet in reality they faced issues of water contamination or an undependable or expensive source of access.

Thus, the current state of water access in Dar es Salaam leaves a lot to be desired. For all the interventions, disparities only appear to be widening between Dar es Salaam and more developed nations, as conditions worsen in the city.