Accessibility to water in peri-urban Dar es Salaam: a case of Ilala municipality

The study aimed at investigating accessibility to water in peri urban Dar es Salaam Tanzania. The general objective of the study was to assess the accessibility of water service in peri-urban community in Ilala Municipality. The study involved 125 households from selected wards who provided their opinions and perception on the study. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed in data collection. The combination of both methods ensured methodological triangulation so as to maximize the quality of data collected. Findings reveal that, population has been increasing over time in peri urban setting mainly due to rural-urban migration. The study also found that, water provision services in peri-urban are unevenly distributed despite the municipal’s efforts to ensure equal access to water services to households. There are various strategies deployed by the community members to address water access including; buying water from vendors, commercial water companies or boreholes in their households to ease the access. The study concludes that, there are variations in water accessibility mainly due to water supply, distance and money spent between households and communities in the municipal. Despite the informal providers such as water vendors, access to water service is still a problem. Under such circumstance people are forced to resort to sources of water that are not good for human consumption. The study recommends that, besides the government-led initiatives, the private sector and other stakeholders should be encouraged to invest in water services in peri-urban areas so as to minimize the problem at household level.