COMMUNITY-BASED URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT UNDER SCARCITY IN DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA. Alphonce G. Kyessi

Transcription

1 COMMUNITY-BASED URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT UNDER SCARCITY IN DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA Alphonce G. Kyessi ABSTRACT Diminishing state resources coupled with inadequate urban management capacity and insufficiency of conventional approaches have rendered it impossible to provide basic infrastructure in urban areas in developing countries such as in the city of Dar es Salaam. However, a notable phenomenon has emerged in many informal and formal settlements where the communities, through self-help and local governance in their own neighbourhood associations, have organised to fill the gaps in services left by the central and local governments. Among other things, community groups mobilise and organise fund-raising, mutual self-help and external technical assistance to provide water supply and sanitation, roads and drainage channels within the immediate area. This seems to be a trend in infrastructure improvement in poor neighbourhoods, that need to be enabled by interested parties including the public and private sectors, training institutions and donors. The community-based water management in Tabata, Dar es Salaam is taken as a case to explain this paradigm shift. INTRODUCTION Since independence the public sector in many developing countries, especially those in Africa, had adopted the role of provider of infrastructure services, treating infrastructure as a social service provided either free of charge or highly subsidised (Kreibich, 1998). With fast urbanisation, the task of providing, operating and maintaining community basic infrastructure services has grown beyond the capacities of both central and local governments that have had little control over the urban development process (Majani, 2000). The result was increasing shortfalls in basic technical infrastructure provision, such as water supply and sanitation, roads and drainage, and solid waste management, in the face of rapid urbanisation and the degradation of existing systems due to under-investment in maintenance and poor management (Kyessi, 1999). While the need to provide basic urban technical infrastructure has been recognised since Tanzania s independence in the 1960s, there are multitudes of factors that have prevented actions to change present conditions in human settlements in urban centres. The primary ones include rapid urban growth, prevalence of urban poverty, insufficiency of conventional policies and concepts that disregard community participation 1 and ignoring the principles of economics of infrastructure, urban management deficits and application of inappropriate technology and rigid standards that do not reflect the severe resources constraints and existing * Alphonce G. Kyessi is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Human Settlements, University College of Lands and Architectural Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 35124, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. ihsbr@ uclas.ac.tz 1 Community participation refers to substantive involvement of residents of a settlement in defining their priority needs; in mobilising their financial, human and material resources in fulfilling their priority needs; in decision making towards planning (design), implementation (including construction) and operation and maintenance of provided services in their settlement

2 settlement situations. These factors have led to the growing gap between demand and supply of infrastructure services in urban areas. Three major factors are discussed in the subsequent sections: PREVALENCE OF URBAN POVERTY The Tanzania National Poverty profile (World Bank, 1993) showed that in general, poverty is concentrated more in rural areas where it is also widespread and more severe. Some 59 per cent of the people living in rural areas were shown to be poor, as compared to 39 per cent of those in urban areas. Although the situation in urban areas may appear to be better, the continued rapid growth of these urban areas partly caused by the movement of people from rural areas is, however, increasing urban poverty (Kironde, 1999). In the absence of reliable statistics on urban poverty, based on people s incomes and assets, one possible way of estimating the scale of poverty is to base it on how many people live in poor-quality homes or settlements that lack the basic infrastructure and services (UNCHS, 1996). Many urban areas in Tanzania are characterised by paucity and poverty of infrastructure and poorly delivered. Urban poverty could also be conceptualised in terms of policies affecting employment and income generating activities; the enforcement of a minimum wage, and controlling prices of basic goods and services such as food and housing. The other approach has been the drive to offer free basic education, health, water services and other municipal services. However, poor national economic performance and Structural Adjustment Programmes torpedoed many of these policies (Kironde, 1999). Urban areas are growing at a rate that public authorities cannot ensure the necessary employment and income earning opportunities, or the expansion of the necessary infrastructure, social and economic services. From the above discussion it is presumed that improving infrastructure will have a positive impact on poverty reduction. Lack of access to infrastructure services, for example water and sanitation services, is at the heart of the poverty trap as is the poor who pay the most for the services and who suffer the most in terms of health and lost of economic opportunities (World Bank, 1999:27). If infrastructure is made available funds saved could be diverted to other productive activities. The critical challenge facing Tanzania is to keep up the pace at which the poor are gaining improved access to sustainable infrastructure services. Meeting the challenge through demand-based approaches will require updating of policy frameworks, effective decentralisation and institutional co-ordination, broader involvement of communities 2 and mobilisation of the local resources including those of the private sector. INSUFFICIENCY OF CONVENTIONAL APPROACHES AND CONCEPTS In general terms, infrastructure services are key intermediate inputs to most production as well as being indispensable for human survival. However, administrative culture prevailing at all levels of government and its agents in urban management can be characterised as passive, procedural and prescriptive (Halla 1997). This situation is often compounded by rules, procedures and regulations imposed by central government based upon borrowed models and 2 The National Poverty Eradication Strategy identified four reasons that had also prevented the efforts of the government in eradicating poverty, they include low level of peoples' participation in different stages of planning which resulted in lack of support and hence made the plans unsustainable. In addition, these efforts were implemented as campaigns and not as part of the overall development plans and therefore could not be sustained after the campaigns were over. There were also lack of guidelines for all stakeholders and the absence of a co-ordination mechanism for poverty eradicating initiatives (URT, 1998).

3 concepts dating back to several decades that often discourage innovation, risk-taking and delegation of authority. Although urban authorities are empowered by law to provide the various services in areas of their jurisdiction, the central government, and national agencies have almost unfettered powers of operation within urban areas. Major public utilities such as water, energy, major roads and central sewer systems in urban authorities fall under the responsibility of authorities without local financial base. This has incapacitated urban authorities in the operation and maintenance of these services. However, urban authorities are greater providers of ancillary services to such utilities. These ancillary services include street cleaning, sanitation, street lighting and drainage. However, urban authorities have recovered costs neither from these outside agencies responsible for those utilities nor from the public. The marginalisation of urban authorities in the provision of such essential public utilities, apart from weakening the revenue base of urban councils, has also led to uncoordinated provision of these services with actual urban development. The result has been gross underprovision of urban services through the public sector. On the planning and development part, there has been a problem of inefficient use of resources caused by selection of inappropriate technology, relying on rigid standards and nonlink and co-ordination of local actors for their effective participation. Traditional or conventional practices based on outdated and inappropriate legislation have continued to be applied in urban settlement planning, development and management in Tanzania. Much emphasis is on well-planned neighbourhoods based on conventional surveying techniques. The urban planning practice in Tanzania is unable to address the specific problems of human settlements (Nnkya, 1999). A major negative feature in the process includes urban development without guidance: Urban development and infrastructure provisioning in Tanzania is increasingly proceeding without regulation. This is indicated by inter alia: mushrooming of informal settlements on marginal lands to include areas liable to flooding, steep slopes, areas left for recreational purposes and relocation of development from the designated areas to the informal settlements or other strategic areas as determined by the developers (Kyessi, 1990). As a result, large numbers of citizens are left without legal tenure and access to safe water and quality sanitation or accessibility, while the increase in the haphazard patterns of urban growth has caused economic inefficiency, environmental degradation and human misery. A large spectrum of technical planning concepts incorporating rigid and unaffordable standards have been proposed through different planning schemes including master plans and squatter upgrading programmes to meet the growing demand for land and infrastructure. High standards in upgrading have created a situation where more property had to be demolished especially in informal settlements such as in Manzese and Mtoni/Tandika in Dar es Salaam (Kironde, 1995). Decreasing budgets and increasing demands for compensation have created situations where some of the infrastructure services have had to be foregone or standards reduced during the planning stage or in the implementation stage (Materu, 1986). There is missing co-ordination and linkages of infrastructure providers and users exactly what planning should be for. For about four decades since independence, each institution offering infrastructure utilities has usually concentrated on its own sector in terms of planning and implementation of projects without co-ordination with other parties and the result has been complete chaos. The whole planning system and procedure has been top-down and very sectoral, a process that has created deficiencies in urban development and management in the country. In fact, potential developers acquiring plots (formally or informally) in urban areas have usually taken their own initiatives, at exorbitant costs, to secure the services for water

4 and electricity on an individual basis. This practice is also found in the informal settlements. It is common to find one developer or house owner financing the installation of a kilometre of water pipe, sewerage pipe, electricity power line and a road to his single plot/house. Technical services have been provided to different users in various parts of the city of Dar es Salaam without proper plans necessitating spaghetti type of supply of these services. This, in a way, increases the cost of supply of the services per area and per capita respectively. Again, costly investments in roads, drainage construction and other technical infrastructure have been wasted for lack of maintenance. If all the several developers/house owners along those utility lines were mobilised and linked, the cost for the installations per plot would definitely be a fraction of the total cost that they all end up paying. Due to limited budgets, inability of the agents to recover costs of infrastructure provision and absence of co-ordination of land developers and consumers has led to under supply to urban residential areas. INEFFECTIVE COST RECOVERY MECHANISMS AND SOCIALLY ORIENTED POLICIES There has been a practice of heavy reliance on external funding and transfer of central government grants for infrastructure projects for example the squatter-upgrading programme of the 1970s and municipal services respectively, with limited or no effective local mechanisms for recovering infrastructure capital and operating costs. Service cost recovery mechanism has never been efficient within parastatal agencies and the local authorities. There has been an absence of realistic cost-recovery system - rich and poor have been treated equally. In Dar es Salaam City residents, mostly the rich, have capitalised on this inefficiency by not paying for the service charges. User charges for example of water supply are often based on elaborate system of central government subsidies and based on a flat rate with no meters for control, therefore, in the strictly economic sense, the services run at a loss (URT, 1997). This has a negative impact on the 'eternal-linkage triangle' of efficient, effective and sustainable provision of urban infrastructure involving costs, service level and cost recovery respectively. The traditional system has limited the prospects of re-investment in the concerned sectors and has constrained the expansion of services to other settlements putting to an end the possibilities of replication. On the other hand there has been a belief by the government that the poor cannot pay for improved services, so services such as water supply is not extended to their areas. On the contrary various studies have shown that water vendors are benefiting from poor households because the poor are paying more than those connected to the facilities such as water supply (see Table 1) Further analysis of the above statistics indicate that if water services were provided in low income settlements (depending on a number of factors viz. mode of delivery), the poor communities may be able to access the services at lower prices normally entailing a saving in spending on the service. Paying for the service means recovering costs incurred in the construction or provision of a service and meeting the cost of operation and maintenance. This is one of the key elements in an effective, efficient, and sustainable infrastructure provision and essentially in a market-led economy. On the other hand, there is clearly a problem of willingness to pay, especially by the poor households. The question which needs to be answered is, How will the initial cost of provision be mobilised in a poor society and

5 suffocating state. Could community participation initiatives reduce cost of infrastructure provision? Table 1: Differentials in the Cost of Water in Selected Cities (ratio of price charged by water vendor to prices charged by the public water utility) City Price ratio (Private vendors to public agents) Surabaya (Indonesia) 20:1 to 60:1 Dhaka (Pakistan) 12:1 to 25:1 Karachi (Pakistan) 28:1 to 83:1 Port-au-Prince (Haiti) 17:1 to 100:1 Lima (Peru) 17:1 Abidjan (Cote d Ivore) 5:1 Lagos (Nigeria) 4:1 to 10:1 Kampala (Uganda) 4:1 to 9:1 Nairobi (Kenya) 7:1 to 11:1 Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) 3:1 to 17:1 Source: World Bank (1988), Field study in Dar es Salaam in 1999 A SEARCH FOR STRATEGIC APPROACHES: A PARADIGM SHIFT In recent years, community participation and self-help have emerged as notable phenomena in infrastructure improvement in many formal and informal settlements. For example, in 1999, 30 (55 per cent) out of 54 major informal settlements in Dar es Salaam had registered local groups addressing a different technical infrastructure in their neighbourhoods 3. Institutional performance in service provision rests on the strategic actions to bridge the growing gap between demand and supply. In addressing this problem of shortage of services, one of the major challenges is to promote a demand orientation to the provision of urban infrastructure services that focuses on users, user ownership and management and cost recovery. In the upgrading and extension of existing services and the installation of new services, the potential for dividing responsibility and linking actors involved could be considered from the priority setting, planning and design stage, and implementation, operation and maintenance. Of late, there has been a major paradigm shift in thinking about provision of urban community infrastructure services, such as water supply, sanitation, solid waste disposal and road and drainage maintenance. It is no longer considered that these services have to be provided by the national or local authority as free public goods or as obligatory service offered in return of general taxes levied by the national or local governments. Increasingly, these services are being viewed as commodities that a service charge or user fee has to be paid, in addition to the development levy or general tax paid by urban inhabitants. The service charge or user fee is in the long-run expected to be adequate to meet the entire cost of supplying these services, that is both capital cost and operation and maintenance cost. 3 Information was obtained from the Ministry of Home Affairs where civil organisations are registered. There are, however, many informal groups observed in informal settlements that are unregistered and address a specific infrastructure problem after which it is dissolved or continue to address another as need arises.

6 Again, of late, there has been increased realisation by the central and local governments that local (settlement) development and related problems are best handled by locally based agencies. For example, the Water Policy adopted by the government in the 1990s clearly states that community-based approach should be the strategy for achieving the Sector goals. Recently, many NGOs, CBOs and private collectors have been admitted in the collection system of solid waste in urban centres. In Dar es Salaam there are about 60 institutions including the Dar es Salaam City Council (Majani, 2000). Their participation has greatly improved the waste collection and disposal especially in informal settlements although many households are not paying for the service. Generally, organised, registered and non-registered CBOs and NGOs have been on the increase in urban areas (Kyessi, 1999). A lot of discussion is going on in the world on community infrastructure and how to provide it to the poor, what techniques and ways to use/apply to reduce the cost of provision, operation and maintenance. On the one hand, in a situation of urbanisation in poverty, a major issue is 'how will the improved basic infrastructure services generate employment and incomes and provide incentives to low-income households to improve their shelter and settlement condition'. On the other hand, 'what kind of provision process to adopt and how to enable all key actors in the public, private and community sectors to play an effective role to ensure the provision of technical infrastructure in informal settlements'? The demand to follow market-oriented principles poses another problem on how privatisation and improving infrastructure services for low-income settlements relate to private commercial enterprises. Cost recovery of infrastructure provided is as important as ability to pay for the operation and maintenance. In reality, there is a need for a new paradigm for urban infrastructure service provision policy, which will be responsive to the market-led economy and settlement condition and most importantly, benefit a wider section of the growing urban population. COMMUNITY-BASED PROVISION PROCESS: WHY DOES IT WORK? Faced with failures of the conventional prescriptions, most urban dwellers in developing countries have to rely on their own initiative in order to access infrastructure. The question is how, or more precisely, which process emerges? The deficiencies in the public sector infrastructure delivery have prompted an increasing role of the private sector, NGOs and CBOs. In fact the role of the public sector is changing slowly. The success stories from the Kampungs improvement in Indonesia and the Katchi Abadis improvement in Pakistan explain the situation of changing roles of local actors (Suselo et al., 1995, Hasan, 1997) and these promulgate the concept of helping people to help themselves as a way of making the poor to get access to basic infrastructure and ultimately tackling poverty. Participation of local actors and self-help has been on the increase especially in informal settlements in Dar es Salaam (Kyessi, 1999; Lückenkötter, et al., 1994)). On the one hand, neighbourhood residents have come together in certain parts of urban areas to enforce some building and land use regularisation and to contribute toward road and drainage construction and maintenance. Also, tapping water from wells and from the public provided system (through vendors or individual households), and sanitation improvement. There is considerable presence of the private sector, be it corporate or small scale or individual, rendering different services or offering specialised consultancy (Kombe, 1999). On the other hand local authorities and other state agencies and donors have been offering technical and financial support to enable the communities to implement the specific infrastructure improvement.

7 It would be noted there is a growing acknowledgement that the only feasible way for urban communities and overburdened public sectors to meet the urban poverty challenge is to build on local initiatives and co-operative partnership. In fact leaving all urban development to self-help efforts would be unrealistic and assume that the governments have abdicated their own major areas of responsibility (Lyby, et al., 1991). The secret to success stories is that: i) Some funding is being channelled more or less directly to CBOs and/or NGOs working in urban areas particularly at the level of community (Atkinson, 2000), ii) Projects are always small in terms of resources, in most cases addressing rather specific local problems predominantly in poor settlements, iii) Infrastructure is being provided on a step-by-step development resembling the progressive improvement model obtained in informal housing development (see Choguill, 1999), but in some cases adopting a broader community development approach. iv) Cost recovery is embedded in the process of provision and operation and maintenance is based at settlement or community level However, the emerging procedure of providing infrastructure to urban areas seems complex with potentials and constraints requiring revision and policy direction. On the one hand many urban services are being privatised with an element of encouraging a holistic approach to infrastructure provision at the community rather than national level, however, without the knowledge of affordability levels. Although some successes have been recorded where implemented, yet the approach has been more ideologically driven rather than growing out of any demonstrable superiority of the quality of services once privatised. In most cases willingness to pay was not considered. Again, capacity of local authorities to monitor the system and the private entities to render quality services have not been there. On the other hand grassroots continue to provide some of the services at the local (settlement) level because of deficiencies in the current public and privatised system of provision. It would be interesting to understand how the technical infrastructure for example potable water is being provided to informal settlements in Dar es Salaam for the purpose of efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability. Other interesting issues include what technology and procedures are being applied and followed and how cost is being recovered and/or reduced to bring-in the element of affordability. If poverty is to be reduced in low-income settlements, economic growth is certainly necessary, but as a strategy it is not enough. There is no automatic trickle-down. Growth strategy and the provision of services must be linked. The strategy should aim at organising the economic process in such a way that earned value added reaches all participants in the economy directly, because all play a part in it. This is called "growth with equity" or "propoor growth" (Thiel, 1999). A pro-poor policy is not primarily about "provision of services for the poor", but about the poor participating in society's value added process. But if they have to participate in this process they must have the chance to work. The capacity to work is the capital of the poor. Every policy aimed at poverty alleviation must be oriented on work, create jobs and promote labour-intensive projects (Thiel, 1999). This phenomenon was part of the early development policy but was forgotten under the influence of technological developments but it has now come into focused attention again, especially in urban areas. At the same time, self-help or voluntary contribution in the provision process, apart from assisting to bring down the cost of provision, would also allow a step-by-step or progressive improvement (Choguill, 1999).

8 THE CASE OF COMMUNITY-BASED WATER MANAGEMENT IN TABATA, DAR ES SALAAM Dar es Salaam, a city of about 3 million people, is urbanising fast at a rate of about 8% per annum with 70% of its population living in informal settlements (Kyessi, 1999). Water is supplied to city residents by Dar es Salaam Water Supply and Sanitation (DAWASA) an autonomous Corporation 4. The major problem of DAWASA is to adapt institutional change. The city water supply is a conventional piped water distribution system, aged more than 40 years with water being derived from three main sources. The total production is 204 million litres per day compared with a demand of 410 million litres a day. It is also estimated that, trunk transmission loss and leakage account for 25 per cent, while distribution leakage amount to between per cent (URT, 1997). On average then 60 per cent of water pumped is lost and only 40 per cent (about 82 million litres) finally reaches the consumers. Apart from the system being defected and the water supply being erratic, the former is irrationally distributed. As a result, many areas in the city have had to go for several days without water and rationing is often practised. 40 per cent of all connections, no running water is available. Only 30% of the population of Dar es Salaam City has access to tap water supplied by the DAWASA. Water reaches individual plots through individual efforts, sometimes tapping water from trunk pipelines located long distances away. These uncoordinated efforts resulted to spaghetti type of water distribution and waste of resources. On the other hand, poor households rely on shallow wells and rivers that many times are contaminated, and pay higher price for water when they buy it from water vendors. The question being answered using the case of Tabata is how potable water could be provided to poor residents under scarcity. The case of Tabata In Tabata, partly an informal settlement in Dar es Salaam, a Community-Based Organisation known as Tabata Development Fund (TDF), in collaboration with the Community Infrastructure Programme (CIP) of DCC, has established a community-based potable water system with an income generation component for its operation and maintenance. TDF started as an informal pressure group in It was formally registered as a community-based organisation (CBO) in The water initiative has a major impact on the community, especially the poor. Community participation, partnerships and self-help play a major role in the implementation and management of the initiative. Socio-economic and physical characteristics The CBO operates in an area of about 171 hectares of land accommodating about 13,700 people or 2283 households with a household size of 6.2 people. The population density is about 80 people per hectare. Before 1975, Tabata was still rural in character. More than 90 per cent of the Landowners stay in their own houses, while about 50 per cent of the houses have Tenants. Tabata, a mix of informal and formal residential area, is a booming and dynamic settlement because of its unique location near a fast growing industrial activity area along the hectic Nelson Mandela highway. Literacy rate in the settlement is very high (above 90 percent) with majority (55 per cent) of Tabata residents having acquired basic primary education, 30 percent had acquired secondary education and 7 percent had acquired college or university training. The literacy levels of 4 Since 1997, DAWASA has been privatised but it is yet operational to record any achievements. The private company would need to invest highly in order to meet managerial and financial deficiencies and the growing water demand.

9 women and men are 83 per cent and 94 per cent respectively. The level of education is an important variable when it comes to discussing issues related to development in a settlement. Education helps to make decisions on the best use of resources. Contribution of ideas towards development and participation without prejudice depends on the level of education of the participants. Sixty per cent of the households are engaged in self-employed activities, the predominant category being petty trading. However, many family heads in the formal settlement have formal employment. As in many other informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, the average monthly household expenditure is about TShs. 100,000/= (about US $ 143 per household per month or US $ 0.79 per person per day) 5 with about 80 per cent of the households spending 50 per cent or more of their incomes on food. The per capita expenditure is, thus, less than a dollar a day depicting a poor community. Tabata residents perceived water to be their priority among seven major basic services inadequately provided in the settlement including roads, storm water drainage, solid waste disposal, health services, sanitation and electricity. Water supply in Tabata The whole of Tabata settlement suffered from insufficient and irregular supply and low water pressure before the current community initiative. The major system that existed before 1998 was the DAWASA public water system. DAWASA water was and is only available one day a week. The informal part of Tabata suffered both from the above problems and its underground pipe infrastructure was not adequate for the population of the area. Households, especially women and children, used to travel long distances to commute for water even when water was available in the DAWASA pipes. Water supply in Tabata is no longer a chronic problem since the end of 1998 when the community started to operate and maintain its own water system in the settlement. The system is independent of the DAWASA water supply system from a new source, creating a multimodel system of water supply in Tabata settlement. The main source of water supply is from deep wells (83 per cent) owned and operated by TDF. This system is somehow supplemented by the DAWASA water supply (14 per cent) especially by residents with own household reserve tanks, which is irregular, normally rationed once per week. DAWASA water is supplied through private standpipes or in-house connection. Most of the poor households cannot afford to keep containers for storing water when DAWASA water is running in the taps. Water is also obtained from shallow wells and small water vendors (3 per cent) mostly in the formal area. Whilst DAWASA water was and is still obtained at more than Tshs.100/= per jerry can of 20 litres, TDF water is obtained at TShs. 20/= for the same amount of water. With the improvement of water situation in Tabata, the average time taken to fetch water has decreased comparatively with previous statistics. With the community water system it takes only 18 minutes to fetch water against minutes previously used to obtain water from DAWASA supply. The DAWASA water is normally obtained at private standpipes on individual plots and mostly run in the pipes at night when rationed. 5 US $ 1 was equivalent to TShs. 700/= in 1999

10 90 per cent of the households in Tabata showed willingness to continue paying for the water services at a rate ranging from TShs. 20/= to 30/=. The average household water consumption is 178 litres per day equivalent to 29 litres per capita per day 6 (household size is 6.2 persons). However, if the water supply in Tabata is further improved, the average water demand (need) increases to 220 litres per household per day equivalent to 35.4 litres per capita per day. It is only a slight increase. The average monthly expenditure on water is 4.3 per cent (equivalent to TShs. 4,300/=) of total monthly household expenditure. The Findings show that, the lower the total monthly household expenditure, the higher the proportion of monthly household expenditure spent on water supply indicating that poorer households spend more on water than the rich because of absence of cross subsidisation in the water sales. Tabata Development Fund as a CBO Tabata Development Fund (TDF) grew from the challenge that faced the community of Tabata in removing amongst its surroundings, an environmental hazard in the form of a dump. The main objective of TDF as it evolved is to raise the living standards of its population and in particular in protecting its surrounding environment. The major role of TDF is to mobilise the people of Tabata to assume more and more responsibility in responding to pertinent issues and constraints around them. Through this process TDF has facilitated the Tabata community to meet the challenge of removing the notorious Tabata Dump which brought bad smell and smoke to the area. Then it has continued to facilitate the meeting of community needs such as water supply, planting of trees in strategic locations, lobbying for introduction of public transportation in the area, and currently improvement of the roads and drainage system in their settlement. Community participation, institution building and local organisation In 1997, a Community decision was reached to design a Community-based Water System for the settlement of Tabata. The decision was prompted by the chronic problem of water supply in Tabata brought about by the irregular supply by DAWASA. TDF took the measures of searching for alternative source and by involving the community of Tabata from the beginning. The main actor in the water provision initiative was Tabata Development Fund (TDF) as the main Community-based Organisation in Tabata acting as the main participant and initiator. One of the major objectives of TDF is to involve both women and men in problem identification, planning, decision making, and implementation of community development activities in Tabata so as to improve their living environment. Thus, women and men were involved in this initiative from the planning stage, through its implementation and operation and maintenance of the water system in Tabata. To ensure maximum participation in project planning, monitoring and evaluation, CBO leadership and several committees were formed. The leadership consists of a Chairperson, a Secretary and a Treasury. The committees include: The Executive Committee: This monitors and directs the development activities at community level. It includes representatives from the community, the local Government including the Mtaa 7 Chairman, NGOs and Donor Organisations. 6 7 The World Health Organisation recommends a minimum of 80 litres of water per person per day for cooking, cleaning, drinking and personal hygiene. The average water consumption in the settlement is only 38 per cent of the WHO standard. Mtaa Chairman is an elected member of the community (representing all political Parties) who supervises all local development activities at the Mtaa or Sub-ward level that is the small unit of the local government administration in urban areas. He or she is the Governor of the Mtaa.

11 The Sectoral Committees: These committees identify community needs, approve plans of action, discuss, monitor and evaluate project implementation. They are composed of local professionals and representatives from Government, NGO and Donors. The Finance Committee: This is responsible for managing the accounts of the CBO. The finance committee is chaired by the CBO Treasurer and is composed of neighbourhood representatives and the Community Improvement Programme (CIP) Accountant of Dar es Salaam City Council as an advisor. The Neighbourhood Consultative Committees: These are responsible for liaising between the CIP and the community members. About 20 area or housing cluster representatives, depending on the population of the neighbourhood, represents each neighbourhood. Neighbourhood Committees: These are composed of area representatives The settlement area covered by CBO is divided into 8 neighbourhoods and 158 housing clusters for effective participation of the community in the whole planning process. This enabled the community to air their ideas and receive feedback from their leaders through a known organisation set up. Training and mobilisation of the community are normally conducted through meetings and seminars at three levels: at the cluster level, neighbourhood level and at CBO level. Collaboration with the Community Infrastructure Programme (CIP) The Community Infrastructure Programme was established in the middle of 1990's. CIP is an operation arm of the Dar es Salaam City Council (DCC) for implementing a pilot programme on community infrastructure provision. The programme's long term objective is to improve the living and economic conditions of communities in Dar es Salaam through the provision of basic infrastructure and services, and in so doing, alleviate poverty by increasing employment and income generation opportunities. The specific objectives include community capacity building, institutional strengthening and improvement of infrastructure and services. CIP was established to address infrastructure problems in deficient communities (in both formal and informal settlements) by working with them. The programme, which embraces the concept of the Environmental Planning and Management (EPM) through the Sustainable Dar es Salaam Project (SDP), involves ten partners. They include, among others, the city Council itself, utility agencies, CBOs; NGOs, donors (Irish Aid and the World Bank), the communities, and other stakeholders in the development process by adopting a partnership, participation and self-help approaches. CIP is currently working with two communities namely Tabata (Tabata Development Fund) and Kijitonyama (Kijitonyama Community Development Association). CIP is co-ordinating implementation of a "demand driven" community infrastructure provision in those areas rather than the "supply driven" mostly applied through the traditional model. Communities in informal settlements do not have all the technical know-how to implement own projects. Thus, external assistance is always important (Hasan, 1997). Recognising the potential to build on local initiatives, a two-point strategy of action was agreed between TDF and CIP in addressing the issue of infrastructure improvement in Tabata. First, to work closely with TDF so as to enhance their capacity to participate in development programmes to address the primary needs within their respective community. Secondly, to work through the local authority (City Council) thereby strengthening its capacity to respond to requests from communities in a coordinated manner. Infrastructures provided include community water supply, road and drainage improvement. Through the process, DCC and DAWASA are made to understand that the communities have the capacity to plan for their own development if given the opportunity to identify their priority problem areas, plan and seek resources for their implementation by involving all the relevant partners.

12 Adoption of minimum standards and use of appropriate technology An independent piped-scheme from a new source with 18 communal standpipes placed at a distance of 200 meters was constructed. Water is pumped from two boreholes (deep wells) into three raised tanks with total capacity of 95,000 cubic litres and distributed into distribution pipes through gravity. Planning and design for the water distribution system was collaboration between the TDF community, DAWASA and DCC through the Technical Support Team of CIP. Planners planning together with beneficiaries implemented a 'demand driven' approach rather than 'supply driven' in infrastructure improvement. A Community labour-intensive construction strategy based on self-help or voluntary labour was applied. No wages were paid in the digging and filling of the trenches for the water pipeline. A water contractor was hired to drill the boreholes and install the electrical water pumps. The approach used was found to be efficient and cost effective as it took only one month to lay down the pipe system after its planing and procurement of materials. The water points are accessible at a maximum of 200 metres from the residential houses. Investment costs and cost recovery The community, who volunteered its self-help labour towards the construction, organisation and management, met part of the capital cost of the water supply. Toping-up funds were contributed by the Irish Aid organisation (an International Development Agency of the Irish Government). They contributed TShs. 52 million for the water pumps, materials and specialised installation skills. The residents also voluntarily contributed land or space for the communal standpipes. The selected labour-based technology combined with standpipes for the water distribution was meant to put the cost down. If each house were to be connected with the water pipes, the total cost would have shot up to above TShs. 874 million which the community could not have raised apart from the fact that with private connections the sanitation system had to be also improved. Water is obtained at an agreed charge of TShs. 1 per litre and funds accrued are used for operation and maintenance and to support other activities. A total amount of about TShs. 2.1 million per month (about US $ 3,000) is obtained from sales of water from all 18 standpipes. To control sales per day, a water meter has been installed at every standpipe. With the households getting the water at 5 times cheaper than earlier period, it is estimated that the community could have paid back within eight years if they had borrowed the additional funds. If a community fund is established, it is believed that water supply in other informal settlements could be improved using the same strategy. Capacity building for self-operation and maintenance Capacity building of the CBO and other partners has been in different ways. Partnership has been created through local-local dialogue. Meetings, workshops, seminars, visits in terms of tours and correspondences were adopted in the local-local dialogue. This was held within and outside the settlement. A Technical Support Team (TST) operational under the Community Infrastructure Programme of the Dar es Salaam City Commission (DCC) works together with TDF as an advisory unit. This TST comprised DCC seconded officers: a Town Planner, 2 Community Development Workers, a Land Valuer and a Civil Engineer. DAWASA had also seconded a Water Engineer to the TST. Training on how to provide and manage community-based service was offered in the entire process. Many persons, women and men, youth and old received the training. The beneficiaries come from the settlement and the partners. Some of the Tabata residents received training in area meetings. Other people trained include: Area committee members, 2

13 project administrators, 1 resident in finance and management, 22 standpipe attendants, other 120 residents in various skills such as gender and leadership training. During the construction period other local residents received on the job training (training-by-doing). Permanent community-based operation and maintenance system has been established using local residents with close supervision of the Finance and technical committees. The trained water attendants sell water from 6am to 6pm each day and there is a local 'fundi' (plumber) who make general repairs as they are reported or detected by the community and management. DAWASA as a partner and with experience in water network systems continue giving technical advice and support on the maintenance of the water system. A stronger CBO (TDF) that was not formed through external pressures and assistance is in place utilising efficiently local available resources and attracting external assistance for improvement of the Tabata living environment. However, there are some management problems that the residents of Tabata think that must be eliminated to have even stronger CBO. These include transparency and democracy in the operations and management of TDF. One example is that; there is no scheduled General Meetings as specified in the constitution of TDF and all residents of Tabata have not been issued with Membership cards. Lessons of experience A strong CBO structure has been established which allows effective flow of information and resources from the people to the management of CBO and vice versa. Also there is increased gender awareness and women participation in community activities. Communities can substantially contribute to the provision of infrastructure provided they are actively involved as partners in urban development. Community mobilisation and participation in decision making, implementation and evaluation is necessary in creating trust, self-help spirit and sense of ownership of various activities in a project. Also involving the communities ensures longer lives of the infrastructure as they will regard the infrastructure as theirs and thus take care of them since they contributed towards their construction. However, for the community participation to be effective, there is need for information and training programmes to give people their understanding of their roles and responsibility as participants in the whole process of initiative cycle. Costs of water provision to low-income settlements can be kept to a minimum (low) through participation and by using appropriate technology and minimum standards e.g. communal standpipes and community participation through self-help contribution and free management advice (leadership) organised under a CBO. The Tabata water supply system has been a demand driven community infrastructure initiative rather than supply-driven mostly applied by conventional institutions such as DAWASA and the DCC. This has proved to be more efficient and effective. DCC and DAWASA have been made to realise that the communities have the capacity to plan for their own development if given the opportunity to identify their priority problem areas, plan and seek resources for their implementation by involving the relevant partners. In other ways the government has realised the importance of involving the civil society in development planning so as to create the sense of ownership in communities towards development endeavours. The case has shown that communities in human settlements are the basic unit for development activities and organisation. Creating a participatory framework leads to profiting from local

14 tradition and experiencing its changes which makes all the partners have a better knowledge of local conditions, problems, deficits, unused resources and real hidden dangers. Consequently participation constitutes training ground for technocrats, leaders and entire community and builds a better atmosphere for social development. On the other hand, external (outside settlement) participants bring with them technical, financial and political support that is necessary for complementing and sensitising community efforts in infrastructure projects. The initiative has impact on the use and allocation of human, technical and financial resources at both the local and national levels. At the local community level, more human (idle) resources have been engaged in carrying out the community activity geared toward upgrading the infrastructure. More youth took and are taking part in the water provision process while others attended training sessions for capacity building. Further more, more women are now participating in the TDF activities after gender sensitisation. In fact, they have already established their income generating activities. Technical personnel and retired officers residing in Tabata are in the technical committee and have been working with the selected consultants in the design of the water supply system to ensure peoples needs were taken into consideration. Regarding financial resources, households contributed money and again part of the revenue from water sales is planned for solid waste management and construction of the TDF office block. At the City and National level, the city council and DAWASA respectively have seconded their staff to the initiative for technical support. A community-owned water system with community-based operation and maintenance programme is in place. The community felt that the infrastructure they have participated in belong to them and thus they are duty bound to maintain them during construction and after their completion. The involvement of people in their own development seems to be in line with the concept of human-centred development in which development is for the benefit of people rather than people being merely agents of development. This is completely the opposite when this case is compared with the case of the Sites and Services and Squatter Upgrading of the 1970s. A community infrastructure provision attracts more investments. The partnerships established (the community, local authority, utility agencies, private sector and international agencies) if sustained will be good premise for addressing other development issues. Peoples attitudes and behaviour have greatly changed. Whereas the community used to believe that provision of infrastructure was the duty of the government, now the situation has changed. The community in Tabata has understood that government alone cannot, or is unable to provide them with the infrastructure they need. Thus, they have to participate in its provision. They are willing to contribute even more money and their labour to improve other infrastructure in the settlement. CIP has facilitated partnership between CBOs, donors, government and utility agencies where partners make joint decisions to achieve common goal for community development. In fact, the community infrastructure provision process in Tabata has been learning and testing ground for the community and other local actors. Many CBOs and NGOs, and research institutions have visited Tabata and are learning on the urban community-based water provision process for possible replication in other settlements. DAWASA and DCC have indicated interest to have the initiative replicated in other low-income settlements in the city.