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Tanzania: Ministers Don't Pay Water Bills, the Poor Go Unwashed PDF Print E-mail
Written by Karl Lyim - The East African   
Thursday, 20 December 2007
Ex Africa, sempera aliquid novi - "Out of Africa, always something new," said the ancient Romans.

Had they been living in Kikwete country today, they would easily have replaced "Africa" with "Tanzania."

Beginning December 6, the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewage Company (Dawasco) has been disconnecting water supply to some of the poshests areas of Dar es Salaam, where the rich and powerful live.

THE AREAS - MASAKI, MBEZI BEACH, Mwenge, Ada and Regent estates - have magnificent mansions and villas, some even with rooftop swimming pools.

In essence, these are areas that use water for normal basic needs like everybody else and then a lot more on top for luxury items such as the swimming pools and watering the lush gardens.

These houses are occupied by the diplomatic corps, international organisations, non-governmental organisations and transnational conglomerates who pay a king's ransom in the name of rent. Others are the homes of the elite few in government and business.

THREE THINGS ARE COMMON TO THESE posh residences. One: They are owned by Tanzanians who are either in business, or are high public officials; two they were built in the wake of the 1992 Zanzibar Declaration (on wealth accumulation), which allowed government officers to own rental premises.

Three: Many of the owners or occupants of the residences have not been paying their water bills.

According to press reports, Dar es Salaam Water and Sewage Companychief executive Alex Kaaya, 3,971 said residents in affluent neighbourhoods cumulatively owe the utility Tsh2,342 million in unpaid water bills.

At Tsh1,175 to the dollar, that is a whopping $1.993 million owed to a struggling public utility by the rich and powerful.

Metaphorically speaking, that is the injury inflicted on the utility. The insult is that many of the debtors are senior public officials, including government ministers.

PRESS REPORTS HAVE IT THAT EVEN the Minister for Water, Dr Shukuru Kawambwa, is indebted to the institution that falls in his docket.

Other ministers on the defaulters list are Hawa Ghasia (Public Service in the President's Office); Mizengo Pinda (Prime Minister's Office); Prof Msolla (Higher Education); Sophia Simba (Community Development), and Anthony Diallo (Livestock).

Some of the defaulters who responded to press queries had this to say in mitigation: "The taps have been dry," "I have never received a bill," "I am out of the country much of the time," but the one that takes the cake is, "I don't know how to go about paying water bills."

ALL THIS IS MOST DISHEARTENING FOR poor Tanzanians who pay their water (and electricity) bills on time and virtually at the threat of virtually instant disconnection. Some people are clearly more equal than others.

Regular and humiliating disconnections are the rule for the poor, and the opposite for the rich.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 19 December 2007 )