Human Rights and the Environment

Case Study: Water Access

Country: Tanzania

Region: Africa

Issues: Women, Water

Tanzania has been subject to privatization conditions in IMF and World Bank structural adjustment lending, including water privatization for the capital city Dar es Salaam. In Tanzania, less than 40 percent of the rural population and 70 percent of the urban population have access to piped water. The rest of the population must seek water from untreated sources. Women often walk up to 15 km each day to fetch water of uncertain quality. Although IMF and World Bank conditions continue to pressure the government to privatize, an agreement between government and multinational water company bidders as to the final content of the bidding document does not currently exist. The right to water implies the right to affordable, clean water, and this right is threatened in Tanzania and other locations where water privatization is occurring without basic guarantees of the right to water for even the poorest communities.[1]

On February 16, 2005, the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority (Dawasa) and China's Anneng Construction Corporation signed a contract to build 80 kilometers of new privately-owned distribution pipes. The U.S. $12.85 billion scheme will overhaul the entire Dar es Salaam water supply network over the next two years, hopefully putting an end to the chronic water shortages.[2]

[1] See Public Citizen, Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program: Tanzania, at http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/cmep_Water/reports/tanzania/index.cfm (visited February 19, 2005).

[2] See IPP Media, 13 bn/- Project to Ease Dar Water Woes, at http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2005/02/08/31975.html (last visited Feb. 19,2005).

Last Updated: 09/09/05