TANZANIA: Running Water Remains a Pipe Dream for Many

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DAR ES SALAAM, May 27 (IPS) - Juma Membe is a doorstep salesmanwith a commodity no one in his poor Dar es Salaam neighbourhood canrefuse. Every inch of space in his handcart is occupied with canaryyellow jerry cans of safe drinking water ready for home delivery.

Less than a quarter of the four million people living in Tanzania'sfinancial capital have running water in their homes, city waterauthorities say. With poor areas typically amongst those lackingpiped water, most impoverished city dwellers rely on privatevendors to bring them supplies.

"It's a good business because people use water everyday," Membe explains, out of breath from racing door to doorin the blistering heat.

As a consequence, low-income residents pay higher prices for thevital resource than their wealthy counterparts in plush suburbs. A20-litre bucket of water has a price tag of about 16 cents, whilethe same amount piped through a home faucet costs less than onecent, according to London-based non-profit WaterAid.

"The estimate for the minimum daily consumption of water forall purposes -- for cooking, for drinking and cleaning -- is 20litres per person," Ben Taylor, a policy advisor for WaterAidin Tanzania, told IPS (for the complete interview with Taylor, see Q&A: "We Are Certainly Making Progress, But It's Slow" ).

This means a family of five could spend up to about 84 cents a dayon water (although most residents cut back to save money). That's asmall fortune in the East African country, where a third of the 38million-strong population scrapes by on less than a dollar a day,according to United Nations figures.

Infrastructure running on empty

Years of neglect and poor planning have curtailed maintenance ofthe water network in Dar es Salaam and prevented the major pipelineexpansion required to meet the water needs of a rapidly growingpopulation. There are now entire communities in locations far frommunicipal water pipes, sewerage facilities and other services.

Nationally, just over 60 percent of the population has access topotable water, according to the latest figures -- from 2004 --provided by the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply andSanitation: an initiative of the World Health Organisation and theUnited Nations Children's Fund.

On the advice of the World Bank and the International MonetaryFund, authorities privatised the water service in Dar es Salaam in2003, hiring a consortium known as City Water to operate theutility.

The contract was cancelled two years later, after complaints thatCity Water was slow in making progress to ease water shortages,improve revenue collection and stamp out illegal connections. Theconsortium, in turn, claimed that its efforts were undermined bythe inadequate information it had initially been given about thefeeble state of the water system.

The dispute was later taken up in various tribunals located abroad,with a London tribunal reportedly awarding Tanzania's governmentabout six million dollars in damages related to failure of thedeal.

City Water was replaced by a government operator, the Dar es SalaamWater and Sewerage Corporation (DAWASCO).

One of the biggest challenges for water authorities remains revenuegeneration, as just one in every 10 customers pays their water tab,said DAWASCO's public relations manager, Badra Masoud.

To address this problem, the operator has started to hand deliverbills and employ the services of debt collectors, she added.

DAWASCO has also launched a campaign to push defaulters into payingfor their water by publicly shaming them. Journalists have beencalled to witness the utility cut water connections to the homes ofcabinet ministers, government offices and the military headquartersof the Tanzanian army, which were months or even years in arrears.

Other tactics include the daily dispatch of DAWASCO trucks fittedwith big speakers that are used to blast out payment reminders."No one is shaking until we force them to pay," saidMasoud.

In January, DAWASCO netted an all-time record income of about 1.8million dollars, and credits this success to its awareness raisingefforts.

Nearby kiosks

In another initiative to extend water provision, DAWASCO hasstarted to build centrally located water distribution points inareas of Dar es Salaam where piped water is not yet widelyavailable. Dozens of kiosks are up and running, and hundreds moreplanned, although many are plagued with erratic water supplies.

Melania Leba runs one of these new businesses. The going rate for a20-litre canister of water at her small kiosk is just four centsapiece.

"I pay DAWASCO about 30,000 shillings a month (almost 26dollars) for my water bill and then keep about another 30,000shillings for myself," she told IPS. "People are happywith the kiosk because they were finding it more expensive whenthey had to buy from vendors or their neighbours."

Havijawa Shabani, who manages a kiosk further down the road, saidcustomers visit her water station because it is convenient andrelatively cheap.

"No one refuses to pay for water because whatever they usedbefore, this is better," she said in an interview with IPS."There are some people who don't have the money to pay rightaway, so I let them come back and pay later."

The kiosk initiative, which creates jobs and drives down waterprices for the poor, will not solve water shortage problems in Dares Salaam. But, it is a good example of innovations that can offerimmediate help, said WaterAid's Taylor. (END/2008)

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