| Abstract |
In Tanzania less than 50 percent of the urban population has access to sanitation. In Dar es Salaam, where the situation is even worse due to the current dispersed urban growth pattern, all international organisations highlight that the Millennium Development Goal of sustainable access to basic sanitationwill not be achieved.
The municipal government promotes policies to improve sanitation services for the urban poor and toempower communities in managing infrastructure projects. It attempts to foster better coordination among different institutions working in sanitation : international organisation, local and international NGOs, private companies, and communities must learn to develop common strategies in providing urban services. The Community Water Supply and Sanitation Project (CWSSP) is the main outcome of these efforts. The CWSSP represents a community-driven strategy to deliver water supply and sanitation services to lowincome people in Dar es Salaam. The Dar es Salaam Water & Sewerage Authority (DAWASA) plays akey role, not only in the implementation of project activities, but also in governing inter-institutional conflicts, with the aim of overcoming the weak coordination between local government and communities. Despite the success of a pilot sanitation project, the CWSSP has mostly worked in water supply involvingmore than 200,000 stakeholders in fifty communities. Sanitation remains in a marginal position, butspecific interventions in the pro-poor sanitation sector are becoming a pressing issue to truly upgradesanitation conditions for Dar es Salaam’s low income population. The paper presents a SWOT analysis of the CWSSP, questioning the Municipality’s’ role and highlighting the institutional fragmentation of the project’s actors. The analysis shows how coordinationbetween local government and communities is crucial in delivering sustainable sanitation services to theurban poor. It also underscores how international development cooperation actors, and especiallyNGOs, represent the key intermediate institution on the ground for encouraging communities to considersanitation as a project and local agenda priority.
(authors abstract)
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