primary management team

KNOW Policy Brief

A report from research examining the relationship between sanitisation inequality and poverty in the informal settlement of Mji Mpya, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

By Tim Ndezi, Festo Dominic, Samwel John, Mussa Raido, Anna Mejala,Paul Miza (CCI), Colin McFarlane, and Christopher Yap

Sanitation services in Mji Mpya are highly variable. Many residents lack access to affordable improved sanitation due to costs of construction and the high water table. The majority of residents use pit latrine toilets, which have led to poor environmental conditions and health outcomes. One solution that has been developed and implemented by Centre for Community Initiatives (CCI), is a Simplified Sewerage System (SSS). SSS has been identified as a key approach to pro-poor sanitation infrastructure that enables communities without access to basic sanitation to build and maintain their own sanitation systems. 

Mji Mpiya offers an important example of an established SSS, which enabled this research to examine the medium and longer-term impacts of the intervention. The SSS in Mji Mpya was installed between 2014-2019. The SSS comprises nine ‘routes’ through the settlement, which connects to 300 houses. The routes were identified in collaboration with the residents; six were constructed by CCI and a further three were constructed by the UK-based NGO, Cambridge Development Initiative.

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The objective of the research presented in this KNOW Policy Brief, was to examine the social and economic impacts of the Simplified Sewerage System (SSS) in the informal settlement of Mji Mpya. The research focused on four issues: the economic impacts of SSS on residents; the social impacts of the SSS on the community; the ongoing maintenance of the SSS; and the ways that policy might support the scaling up of SSS in Mji Mpya and across Dar es Salaam. The study combined qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection.