Users are divided along the overlapping features of water access modes, socio-economic status and ecological zones. This produces diverging interests and reproduces the individualized ways of addressing problems of water scarcity, variability and infrastructural barriers to access. Hence, the present socio-technical set-up stems from many lost opportunities of pooling resources and efforts into a water system that serves the collectivity of users.
The present paper argues that the skewed nature of water investments, and the resulting lack of local distribution systems in the city, is the major reason for abstracted water not to reach intended users. The operations of informal resellers and distributors, in turn, develop in response to the inaccessibility and fragmented nature of piped water services.
Further, the sensitivity to disruption in the public system, for ecological and technical reasons, is partly compensated for by the flexibility of vending systems, as well as individual investments in water storage among households and final users.
This way, Dar es Salaam’s greatly fragmented but flexible hydrosocial system manages to function in the face of deteriorating piped water services.
