Governance Deficits in Dealing with the Plight of Dwellers of Hazardous Land: The Case of the Msimbazi River Valley in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Abstract

Hazardous land is given high profile in the Tanzanian National Land Policy 1995. Subsequent land laws provide for participatory procedures to declare land to be hazardous. Public authorities have over the years been concerned about the continued living on a flood-prone Msimbazi River Valley in the city of Dar es Salaam. Despite adopting carrot policies such as allocating alternative land, and stick policies including forced eviction and demolition, sections of the population have continued to live in the Valley. Research on the ways public authorities have dealt with flood-prone areas, established that legal procedures to declare Msimbazi River Valley to be hazardous or environmentally sensitive have never been taken, and are not well-known among officials. Moreover, focus has been placed on valley dwellers instead of addressing citywide flooding. Paternalism, dealing with market failure and exerting political authority are considered to be the drivers motivating the government to evict valley dwellers. It is concluded that the approach dealing with dwellers of floodprone areas should adhere to legal provisions by, in particular, being participatory; should utilize available technology to identify, declare and demarcate hazardous land, should put this land to the badly needed greening of the city; and should address citywide flooding as a part of managing the city instead of focusing on a few individuals in a particular hazardous area.

Hybrid governance and disaster management in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Monrovia, Liberia, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

“…For instance, all land management decisions and processes in Dar es Salaam were made through the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Developments, an agency whose highly limited capacity was not enough to keep up with the demand for land as people moved to the city (Wolff, Kuch, and Chapman, 2018). Consequently, many of the city's residents turned to alternative, non‐state‐based, forms of land management, such as transaction practices managed by unlicensed local brokers or middlemen (Kironde, 2016; Wolff, Kuch, and Chapman 2018). This has also meant that only the most expensive developments are initiated through the formal process (Rosen, 2019).…”

“…This has also meant that only the most expensive developments are initiated through the formal process (Rosen, 2019). Furthermore, since the state only engaged minimally with alternative forms of land transaction, its tools for land management were essentially limited to eviction, demolition, and other ‘blunt’ instruments centred on removing illegality (Kironde, 2016). Thus, more than 75 per cent of residents in Dar es Salaam currently live in informal settlements and many face unchecked crowding, low economic density, and tenure insecurity and threats of eviction (Sheuya, 2010).…”

Assessing Morphological Changes of the Msimbazi River Using Satellite Images

“…This in turn leads to deposition of the eroded materials in the downstream, hence reduce channel capacity and results into river bank flooding (Das & Samanta, 2022;Douglas, 2017). Communities living in lowlaying areas in the downstream are more prone to flooding with associated impacts including loss of propery and life (Das & Samanta, 2022;Kironde, 2016;Monte et al, 2016;Nchito, 2007). Although floods impact both the rich and the poor, literature shows that the impacts are more felt by the urban poor as they normally do not have any alternative dwellings and have limited capacity to get back on their feet after the disasters (Amoako, 2012;Kironde, 2016;Nchito, 2007).…”

“…Communities living in lowlaying areas in the downstream are more prone to flooding with associated impacts including loss of propery and life (Das & Samanta, 2022;Kironde, 2016;Monte et al, 2016;Nchito, 2007). Although floods impact both the rich and the poor, literature shows that the impacts are more felt by the urban poor as they normally do not have any alternative dwellings and have limited capacity to get back on their feet after the disasters (Amoako, 2012;Kironde, 2016;Nchito, 2007). River Msimbazi catchment in Dar es Salaam is among the highly populated and rapidly urbanizing areas of Tanzania (Sauka, 2019).…”

“…However, the catchment has been a subject of increased floods in recent years (Sauka, 2019). Severe floods were reported in 2009, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019(John et al, 2019Kironde, 2016;Sauka, 2019;Valimba & Mahe, 2020), exposing the city's vulnerability to climatic events. The floods are associated with heavy rains (Valimba & Mahe, 2020), whereby within a few hours of the rain event the water rises to a height of two meters or more above the banks of the river.…”