Structural Leakage in Dar es Salaam : The Investment Deficit in Water Distribution

Water distribution in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, has for many years been poorly managed and underfinanced. It also has a record of unbalanced investment, which has contributed to a situation of a relatively well developed infrastructure for water abstraction and conveyance, but which lacks the commensurate connection to consumers. Combined with low water pressure, this turns into a self-reinforcing tragedy of pipe breakages and leaks. The lack of collective solutions to urban water supply and infrastructure management excludes the majority from piped water services, and utilises available resources in a far from optimal way. The paper first provides background on Dar es Salaam’s water system, with its agents of supply and sources of water. The subsequent section discusses the distribution system and introduces the phenomena of ‘spaghettiisation’ and ‘structural leakage,’ which have been observed and documented within a broader study of water vending and utility privatisation (Kjellén, 2000, 2006). The spaghettiisation and structural leakage phenomena are inserted into a discussion of (the lack of ) collective action, in what amounts to consumers choosing to exit – or being excluded – from the system. The long-standing lack of investments into the distribution system contributes to a self-reinforcing tragic situation where consumers, in order to secure their daily water needs, damage the system and thereby reinforce the vicious cycle of stagnation.