How to water a parched city: a Tanzanian tale

By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - The Tanzanian soldiers burst into the water utility in Dar es Salaam last month and demanded to be shown the main distribution taps. When the plumbers refused, they abducted five people and beat them up.

The soldiers were furious because the water distributor, Dawasco, had shut off supplies to army camps over an unpaid bill of 200 million shillings ($172,000). The army described them as errant soldiers and said police were investigating.

Dawasco, the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Corporation, has been getting tough with customers who fail to pay their bills in this sweltering port city on the Indian Ocean.

But getting the money is just one of Dawasco's problems. A clunky administration and run-down infrastructure combine to make ending chronic shortages of water in Tanzania's coastal commercial capital a real struggle.

"We have tried all manner of things to get people to pay; discounts, reminders, phone calls, but they don't respond," Badra Masoud, Dawasco's public relations manager, told Reuters.

Even government ministers have defaulted, she said.

"Our last option is disconnection for the most stubborn."

Dawasco took over the water network from City Water, a joint venture put together in 2003 by Britain's Biwater, German firm Gauff and a local investor, following World Bank pressure to privatize the system and address the shortages affecting Dar es Salaam's 4.5 million people.