Community Data in Dar es Salaam Brings Insights that Will Help in Strategic Options for Solid Waste Management in the City

Written By Hawa Adinani and Emmanuel Kombe.

building accessibility in the area of interest

Dar es Salaam is one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities in Africa with a population of over 5 million and a growth rate of approximately 2.1% from the census of 2022. The city is expected to be a mega city with a projected population of over 10 million people by 2030. The growth pace of the city is coupled with multiple challenges including that the city is 70% informal settlement, with inadequate infrastructure, water & sanitation, waste management, health issues, etc. The complexity of the city makes solid waste management even more challenging i.e. creating a system that works given the intricacy that exists, of informality, economic level, accessibility, etc. Creating a sustainable SWM system in Dar has been a challenge for years, we have many actors collaborating with the city council to manage solid waste in Dar es Salaam but the issue remains a challenge.

The city produces an estimated 4,600 tons of waste per day, with 65% of the population having regular collection service (National Census, 2022), however, due to transport and collection inefficiencies it is estimated less than 40% is collected at the main dumping site in Pugu,. The transportation of waste to Pugu has become increasingly time-consuming and costly due to traffic congestion and poor road conditions, especially during the rainy season. This has led to informal dumping by communities and waste collectors, resulting in waste in waterways, drains, open spaces, or being buried or burned. The gap between waste collection and disposal, combined with other infrastructure challenges, leads to clogged drainage systems, littered streets, and waste finding its way into oceans and rivers posing a significant threat to the environment and health.

Surveyor in the field

OpenMap Development Tanzania has been working with the World Bank to conduct a baseline assessment of solid waste management in Dar es Salaam. This will help develop strategic options for managing waste in the city based on the nature of the community data collected — See some of our previous engagements here. The assessment, conducted in 44 wards from February to July 2024, aims to understand the existing mechanisms of collection services, providers, community perception of overall litter management, satisfaction with the services, willingness to pay for existing services, etc. This assessment will not only provide us with data from the community and how they evaluate the whole system but will ultimately help the respective authorities establish a system that works for each specific locale based on the responses provided by the community. The community data collected provided interesting findings on the system and how the community evaluates the overall situation, some responses are detailed below!

Surveyor Interviewing community member in Msimbazi ward- Tabata

What does community data tell us about the existing system?

• 91% of respondents indicated that there are waste collection services, should be noted that the response of the service availability means there are providers responsible for waste collection in their area which does not equate to service reliability and provision. For instance, 59% of respondents who receive services responded that the service is irregular and the service varies significantly based on location and provider.
• Community reported service reliability in areas that are not served by formal contracted providers, i.e. informal waste pickers and uncontracted private providers. This necessitates the need to evaluate service options and localize the system to fit community needs. This includes providing support and regulation for informal waste pickers as they are reliable to community members.
• 49% of communities are willing to pay more for improved services and about 89% of respondents are willing to pay for litter removal services in their neighbourhood, but 42% find the current cost too high. This means if there are effective systems of litter control and removal communities are willing to be part of and participate as they are already willing to pay more for neighbourhood cleaning services.

A map showing the community who are receiving waste collection services, reliability and different waste disposal practices.

• Most communities are aware of waste separation, but most plastic waste is separated by informal plastic waste pickers and the majority of waste is not separated for collection. This is because the existing system does not accommodate waste sorting and there is no waste recovery facility in all of the 44 wards as the transfer stations have been deemed not feasible in Dar es Salaam. Only one Material Recovering Facility(MRF) is available in Dar es Salaam. This situation means that even if communities are willing to sort their waste and reuse some, most of the waste will end up mixed anyway, calling for a proper way and facilities to enable this.
• More than half of the communities interviewed are aware of the existing waste management campaign whereas most of them are government-led.
• Over two-thirds of the communities use sacks (commonly known as ‘viroba’) as waste storage at the household level as they are more accessible and affordable.

A map showing the presence of informal waste collection services

Data Use

The World Bank intends to collaborate with partners in these municipalities to help provide strategic options or solid waste management based on the data collected. The collected data by OMDTZ will be overlaid with other data on litter and plastic distribution collected using the Litterati app and Tanzania census data of 2022 including solid waste data, economic data, etc, and the combination of these data can tell and help to inform/advice the decision on waste management strategies in Dar es Salaam.