Domestic practices for accessing water and rural-urban transformations: example of emerging urban centres in Tanzania

ABSTRACT

The transition from rural to urban spurred by population growth and housing densification has implications for the planning of service provisions, not least domestic water supplies. The objective of this paper is to document the status of domestic water access and examine existing options for domestic water provision along the rural–urban transition. The study employs a combination of research methods in both data collection and analysis. Given the dual character (rural–urban) of the emerging urban centres, there is limited distinction in the domestic water services provided since they tend to be in between the two, in a state of transition.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural–urban transformation
• rural urbanization
• water regulating institutions
• domestic access to water
• emerging urban centres

Acknowledgements

The research presented in this paper is based on the PhD thesis of the lead author, Dr Lekumok Kironyi, submitted to Sokoine Agricultural University (SUA) in Morogoro, Tanzania (http://repository.costech.or.tz/handle/123456789/94056). The thesis’s chapter 6 served as the starting point of developing this manuscript and therefore shows content similarities. The authors thank the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) for supporting this study through the research project on Rural–Urban Transformation (RUT): Economic Dynamics, Mobility and Governance of Emerging Urban Centres for Poverty Reduction (No. 13-PO2-TAN). The project was coordinated through the then School of Agricultural Economics and Business Studies (now College of Economics and Business Studies), SUA, and implemented in partnership with the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Section for Geography, University of Copenhagen. The authors are also very grateful to the research participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Consultative Research Committee for Development Research of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs [grant number 13-P02-TAN].