Peri-urban congestion and health risks in Zanzibar: a case study of urban-west region

In Tanzania, the majority of households in peri-urban areas live in the unhealthy and overcrowded conditions that are the result of a continuation of unhealthy water supplies and sanitation, uses of poor open local drainage system, limited wastes disposal and the strong use of fossil fuel like charcoal and firewood as sources of indoor air pollution. This study intended to examine health risks in congested peri-urban area of Urban West Region in Zanzibar, which is largely caused by insufficient socioeconomic and poor environmental conditions. The findings indicated that poor urban dwellers had higher health risks due to poor living conditions, which is associated with low socioeconomic and poor environmental factors. Due to high use of fossil fuels like firewood and charcoal as the source of energy for cooking, high indoor air pollution existed in the households that caused potential health hazards. There was no garbage disposal, poor sanitation system and the prevalence of open local drainage. Due to absence of wastes disposal, households used open drainages as alternative disposal areas. Majority of the households used pit toilets and few had no toilets at all. Ventilation was poor due to the blockage of windows by cardboards, iron sheets and bricks. Also, acute and chronic diseases such as malaria, diabetes, tuberculosis, blood pressure and skin diseases are the diseases that occurred mostly in the study areas. Malaria (57.7 percent) is the most chronic disease and a common disease. Dirty environment (48.6 percent) in the congested settlements is one of the causal factors of malaria. Furthermore, infections and parasitic diseases like respiratory infectious diseases and water related diseases also prevailed in the poor settlements. Existence of communicable and non-communicable diseases caused high rates of mortality. The rate of deaths of the people of less than 15 years (35.8 percent) was higher than that of people of 15 to 44 years (35.6 percent). Therefore, local governments, health professionals and all authoritative leaders of the communities have the responsibility in the reduction of morbidity and mortality in the poor congested households. Comprehensive measures are needed to plan proper strategies that will foster to reduce poverty within the poor settlements and help to make sure households live healthy under hygienic conditions.