Letter from Alan York: I noted with interest the article on Kilimanjaro and global warming in TA. When a teacher at Tabora Boys’ School in the sixties, I climbed up to the crater and took photographs. On 6th January, 1965, the snow was 5 ft. deep and the ice was awesome. I climbed with David Snook (another teacher at Tabora), and with the East African correspondent of The Times.

Snow on Kilimanjaro

The latter wrote a description of the climb which later appeared in The Times under the heading ‘Fitness Test for Middle Aged Tourists’!

Alan York

On the 13th of May the Government terminated its contract with City Water Services for the management of Dar es Salaam’s water supply. The contract, in which the British firm Biwater was involved, was terminated on the grounds that the firm had failed to deliver services as per the contract. City Water claimed that the original bid documents were misleading and inaccurate. For detailed background see Tanzanian Affairs No. 80.
Dr. Brian Mathew looks here at the issues that now face the body – DAWASCO – which has taken over responsibity for water supplies and offers a four-part solution.

The problems of Dar es Salaam’s water supply are in many ways similar to problems of urban water supply systems across Africa. Systems installed largely in the 1950’s and 60’s now are not only suffering from under maintenance and old age, but also the challenge of supplying water to populations vastly larger than they were originally set up to serve.
The overall figures for Dar es Salaam, a city of 3.5 million people, give an idea of the problem. 281 million litres is pumped into the system every day, while the estimated total demand is 400 million litres per day. Of the 281 million litres that are pumped as little as 16% is delivered to paying customers, the rest is lost to illegal connections and leakages. The solution often adopted by water companies of concentrating, first on cutting off non payers and illegal connections, and secondly installing water meters for those that do have registered and paid for pipe connections, has unseen consequences for the vast majority of the population that have to rely on water vendors, or walking to buy their water. These consequences are economic and social, are of great importance to ordinary people and follow the predicable laws of supply and demand. Where water meters are fitted, for example, the householder with a water connection suddenly becomes much more aware of the cost of the water he or she is receiving and then selling on. The tap owner, if he is to continue supplying water to his neighbours, has to monitor the use of his tap to match its use with income if he is to avoid his water bill going through the roof. As a result he often stops selling water; it is simply too much bother to keep an eye on the tap all day especially if you have a job; it is easier to lock the tap up and refuse water to those who come rather than risk making a loss. The consequences, for the 75+% of the population who depend for their water on informal arrangements such as these is real hardship. With further to travel to find water the price also goes up for both vendors and end users.
The solution of privatisation for city water supplies, favoured by donors as a free market approach to urban development, can make the situation worse, especially when efforts made for short term financial prudence come into conflict with the bigger needs of a thirsty and growing urban population. So what is the solution? Continue reading →

President Mkapa on the cover of Issue 81