Social Accountability for Sustainable Domestic Water in Dar es Salaam
Social Accountability for Sustainable Domestic Water in Dar es Salaam
Funder: Scottish Funding Council grant (SFC/AN/12/2017)
Dates: . September 2017-March 2018.
Principal Inverstigator: Dr Neil Munro
Co-Investigators: Dr Nai Rui Chng, Prof Marian Scott , Dr Claire Scott, Prof William Sloan and Dr Stephanie Connelly (all Glasgow University)
Funding amount: £49,992.
Abstract:
Brief description of activity:
This pilot research project was carried out by the University of Glasgow’s Schools of Social and Political Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, and Engineering in collaboration with Department of Geography, University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and two NGOs active in the water sector in Tanzania, Shahidi wa Maji (SwM) and Water Witness International (WWI), Edinburgh. We aimed to investigate how local behaviour, motivations, and cultural and institutional constraints affect community-based efforts to make water governance institutions responsive to local needs in Dar Es Salaam and the town of Morogoro, Tanzania. Our achievements were as follows.
Outcomes/Impact:
We carried out a baseline survey of residents of four districts of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city, and, for comparison, Morogoro, a provincial town some 200 km west of Dar. Between 7 and 29 March 2018, a team from UDSM interviewed 2154 urban citizens about their access to water, perceptions of water quality, sanitation and hygiene facilities, readiness to pay for water services, social accountability for water provision, civic engagement and social and economic circumstances. In collaboration with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation’s Dar es Salaam office, we also collected water quality data at 45 selected survey sampling points, finding strong evidence of salinity and low oxygen content in well water as well as high returns on the presence of coliforms in tap water. We have provided training for one MA student in Public Health (at UDSM) and one assistant lecturer in Geography to do an in depth interviews in water quality in Temeke and measure water quality using a probe. Geo-referenced data were gathered with the water quality data to allow mapping. Finally, we held an interdisciplinary, international workshop to evaluate outcomes and review opportunities for future research, connecting with 84 researchers and practitioners working on problems of social accountability for sustainable water in 22 countries of the developing world.
The project has opened a dialogue with prospective international partners about future collaborative research, including on other continents besides Africa. The project partners have developed a collaborative relationship and forged new links. Both the survey and the workshop have resulted in reports which can be directly applied in WWI’s and SwM’s ongoing advocacy work. The project won first prize in the College of Social Sciences at the 2018 University of Dar es Salaam Research Week.
Social Accountability for Sustainable Domestic Water in Dar es Salaam
Social Accountability for Sustainable Domestic Water in Dar es Salaam
Funder: Scottish Funding Council grant (SFC/AN/12/2017)
Dates: . September 2017-March 2018.
Principal Inverstigator: Dr Neil Munro
Co-Investigators: Dr Nai Rui Chng, Prof Marian Scott, Dr Claire Miller, Prof William Sloan and Dr Stephanie Connelly (all Glasgow).
Funding amount: £49,992.
Abstract:
Brief description of activity:
This pilot research project was carried out by the University of Glasgow’s Schools of Social and Political Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, and Engineering in collaboration with Department of Geography, University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and two NGOs active in the water sector in Tanzania, Shahidi wa Maji (SwM) and Water Witness International (WWI), Edinburgh. We aimed to investigate how local behaviour, motivations, and cultural and institutional constraints affect community-based efforts to make water governance institutions responsive to local needs in Dar Es Salaam and the town of Morogoro, Tanzania. Our achievements were as follows.
Outcomes/Impact:
We carried out a baseline survey of residents of four districts of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city, and, for comparison, Morogoro, a provincial town some 200 km west of Dar. Between 7 and 29 March 2018, a team from UDSM interviewed 2154 urban citizens about their access to water, perceptions of water quality, sanitation and hygiene facilities, readiness to pay for water services, social accountability for water provision, civic engagement and social and economic circumstances. In collaboration with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation’s Dar es Salaam office, we also collected water quality data at 45 selected survey sampling points, finding strong evidence of salinity and low oxygen content in well water as well as high returns on the presence of coliforms in tap water. We have provided training for one MA student in Public Health (at UDSM) and one assistant lecturer in Geography to do an in depth interviews in water quality in Temeke and measure water quality using a probe. Geo-referenced data were gathered with the water quality data to allow mapping. Finally, we held an interdisciplinary, international workshop to evaluate outcomes and review opportunities for future research, connecting with 84 researchers and practitioners working on problems of social accountability for sustainable water in 22 countries of the developing world.
The project has opened a dialogue with prospective international partners about future collaborative research, including on other continents besides Africa. The project partners have developed a collaborative relationship and forged new links. Both the survey and the workshop have resulted in reports which can be directly applied in WWI’s and SwM’s ongoing advocacy work. The project won first prize in the College of Social Sciences at the 2018 University of Dar es Salaam Research Week.