'A much more livable dar es salaam': Sustainable Urban Development. (The Chronicle INTERVIEW).

Wilson Mukama is City Director of the Dares Salaam City Council. Its Community Infrastructure Programme -- established in 1995 within the larger Sustainable Dares Salaam Project and aimed to build the City Council's capacity to plan and manage urban growth and development -- won the Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment. "I want to see a much more livable Dares Salaam -- in terms of security, of course, but especially in terms of affordability", says Mayor Mukama. His vision of "a much more planned Dares Salaam" would eventually lead to "a much more manageable", "much cleaner" and "much safer" city. Horst Rutsch of the UN Chronicle spoke with Mayor Mukama in his office in Dares Salaam on 28 February 2001.

On sustainable urban development as regional planning 

The high rate of urbanization is not a problem unique to Dares Salaam, but one faced by many cities in developing countries around the world. Every day, hundreds if not thousands of people move to the city from the rural areas of the country. This tremendous influx often undermines the local government's best efforts to provide adequate services to the inhabitants of the city. This is indeed difficult as most people migrate to the big cities in developing countries. In our case, the only way we can slow down these rates is for the city community to work with the central Government to manage this continuing urbanization.

We need to look beyond the built-up space of the city and view the larger area of Dares Salaam as an economic region and, within this economic region, we need to develop satellite towns. In other words, we must move development to outside Dares Salaam. In Europe and in the United States, urban planners usually suggest having new towns; but it is very difficult to build a new town here. However, we have some satellite towns already in place. It is at the level of the regional planning, in the development of Dares Salaam as an economic region, that the central Government should come in. We have a suitable regional capital in Kibaha, about 45 kilometres from here, and then we have other urban centres within a radius of about 100120 kilometres--they form the periphery of Dares Salaam. If you want to reduce the overwhelming influx of people coming to Dares Salaam, then these urban centres equally need to be developed.

And, of course, we have to address the causes underlying rural problems. We have to encourage the youth to stay in the rural areas so that there is less migration to Dares Salaam. But that means that there must be viable economic activities to sustain them there--cash crops, good living conditions and availability of services, for which they normally come to town, such as education, health and the provision of safe water. The temptation to move will ease if these services are made available within our rural areas and if the people there have some gainful economic activities--they produce their crops and they sell them. Most of these young men, who peddle goods on the road, are from the South. Traditionally, the South has always been the backwater of the country because it lacked a reliable cash crop, but with the introduction of cashew nuts as a reliable cash crop, most of the towns in the southern part of the country have seen a tremendous rate of growth. So people are now going back to their home areas beca use they have something to do.

On the cooperation between the central Government and local authorities

Unless we cooperate with the central Government, the local authorities here cannot really meet the overwhelming burden. And this is happening. There has been a shift in policy in Tanzania; urban development is no longer concentrated in Dar es Salaam alone. We now have urban centres like Dodoma, Arusha, Mwanza, Mbeya-they are becoming centres of growth in their own right, so this lessens the burden for our city. In most countries in West Africa, you will find that most of the development is concentrated in the capital city; but this not the case in Tanzania. In the first place, Dar es Salaam is not the capital city; the capital is Dodoma, which is part of the development of that central part of our country. But we have other commercial centres like Moshe, Arusha, Tanga, Mwanza-they are growing fairly fast. For instance, Arusha now has its own growth as the seat for a number of international institutions such as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. And then Mwanza has also been recendy upgraded from a municipality and designated as another city. In Dar es Salaam, the central Government works with the local authorities through its regional secretariat, which coordinates all government activities within the city. Together we address issues such as unemployment and the problem of overpopulation in Dar es Salaam. The central Government also works closely with the other regional authorities, in our case, the coastal region and Morogoro.

On the problem of solid waste management

We have recently begun thinking of tackling the solid waste management problem together. We should think big now and pool our efforts together with other regions. We are even thinking of ways we can utilize our railway system, making use of some of the train wagons, so that we could ferry the waste out to a certain point where normal pickup trucks would then carry it to the dumping site. This way, we could avoid a number of the problems associated with solid waste management-it is a colossal problem right now. Unless we work closely with the central Government, we won't be able find a permanent solution to the waste disposal problem. We couldn't open most of the sites we approved as landfills because of court injunctions. People have become environmentally conscious-they don't want to live in a polluted, smelly environment. They don't want the waste to be dumped there, so we have to find a way out. Because the level of investment needed in managing a modern landfill is so enormous, even within the city of Dar es Salaam, we must pool our resources if we want a much more effective, efficient and manageable dumpsite. The long-term solution is to pool our resources and work together with the other proximate regions or towns.

On the importance of local initiatives

People are now more aware of the importance of preserving and improving our living conditions with respect to a healthy environment. What local initiatives enable people to do is for improvements to take root and become native to the area. This is particularly true for maintenance, because it is the day-to-day business of maintenance, ultimately, that determines the success of a project. If something is initiated locally, it has a greater chance of becoming sustainable. Of course, if you have something that is home-grown, there are limitations in terms of experience, in terms of skills, in terms of expertise. This is where you must learn from other people's experiences, and this is where exchanges with the international community are invaluable. Especially the idea of best practices-the whole idea of learning from illustrative city projects is useful, because we don't have to reinvent the wheel. These other towns have had these problems before, and we are privileged to have access to the sharing of their expe riences, learning how they went about solving those problems.

But if something is not part of your value system, then certain capabilities become a problem and could eventually create a donor dependency mentality. We don't want that kind of dependency. We want international donors to help us build the necessary capacities from within, so that eventually we own it and we share it with the various members of the community. These communities should ultimately be the creators; they should contribute to the drainage system and the roads they use. This helps to inculcate into them a sense of ownership. That can't come from outside, it has to be cultivated, it has to be home-grown, otherwise, if we don't localize development, it becomes a problem.

On learning from best practices

In my one year as City Director of the City Council of Dar es Salaam, I have benefited from attending a number of international conferences. Some of the best practices discussed at these conferences have contributed immensely to my understanding of the ways local authorities around the world are getting the people involved, especially in the area of governance. Interaction is now more horizontal and more open, not top-down as it used to be. We now have ideas coming from the grass-roots level, as we have seen in instances elsewhere, in the experience of Porto Allege in Brazil, for instance, and the Lima experience in Peru. If you want to have a successful city administration, the local authority must be a learning organization. If it doesn't learn new ways, it stagnates, it does not move forward.

On the priorities for the city of Dar es Salaam

I want to see a much more livable Dar es Salaam--in terms of security, of course, but especially in terms of affordability. A city, in other words, where people have a good income and can afford to pay for the various services available to them--housing, transport, recreation areas. We plan to carry out an urban renewal in some areas, because if we don't have enough open spaces, our city won't be able to breathe and will choke. We are attempting to make our beaches safe and clean so that people can relax there. They should not just always spend their free time inside their houses because they have no better choice. We need more open spaces, with more gardens, recreational parks.

We are working towards a much more planned Dar es Salaam. This begins, of course, with good housing, affordable housing. This is becoming quite expensive, so we are looking for alternative ways of helping people find housing. The Government is considering reestablishing the housing bank, where people could have some loan facilities, which would enable them to get for themselves good, affordable housing. We also want an efficient and less polluted urban transport system for Dar es Salaam. Mass transit is still a problem here. People have yet to accept the fact that public transport is as convenient as driving your own car. So we need a change of attitudes: that you shouldn't drive into town on a daily basis, but instead, you can drive on Saturdays or Sundays when there is less traffic. So I want to see a much more manageable, less chaotic city.

And I want a much dealer Dar es Salaam, because if you don't have a minimum of environmental standards in place, it will be very difficult to attract investment. It has to become a destination for investment, which would generate enough business to create employment. Dar es Salaam now is a city with a population of around 3.4 million--these are the residents only--the entire floating population is around 5 million. Our planning has to take into account a population of that size, and our laws and by-laws must reflect this fact, too, so that we reduce crime and have a much safer Dar es Salaam.

On the Safer Dar es Salaam Programme

The Safer Cities Programme has been quite a success in several areas. It has raised the level of awareness of crime. People are more aware now of the kinds of crimes vulnerable groups like women and children face in our society. They have also learned to combat these crimes, realizing that greater protection arises from more community involvement. This has also led to community policing. The community is now policing itself, and the results have been positive. Previously, policing was considered just a matter for the national police, but now that people are more aware, they are more involved. They no longer look up to the central government or the local authorities to do the policing for the community and they are willing to contribute to help meet the costs involved.

The Safer Dar es Salaam Programme has also led to the formation of groups involved with the youth in our community, leading them away from criminal activities by training them, engaging them and encouraging them to learn practical skills. Some of these community groups are involved in income-generating activities that help people withdraw from criminal activities. Our youth is now realizing that if it wants to avoid being idle, it has to engage itself in developing income-generating activities. So this is one area where we can measure success.