Report release - CSE's position paper on the state of sanitation in Tanzania'

The United Republic of Tanzania has a population of 57.3 million people – with more than 70 percent of the population living in the rural areas. This is the fourth populous country in Sub Saharan Africa. Tanzania, especially the rural areas, lose interest in building toilets due to non-availability of safe toilet technologies. The poor sanitation has been observed to be on the rise in rural Tanzania, and overall, among pastoralists and other groups whose main source of livelihood is livestock keeping. There is a dire need for safe disposal, treatment and reuse of faecal sludge in this region.

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi (India)-based think tank, released a position paper on ‘Tanzania-State of Sanitation’ on 30^th June’2021 at 2:30pm Tanzanian Time. The meeting was attended by the government officials of Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Tanzania. A detailed presentation was given by Ms Sushmita Sengupta, Program Manager, Rural Water and sanitation, CSE on the current state of sanitation in Tanzania and way forward. Dr Khalid Massa, Assistant Director, Ministry of Health, Tanzania spoke about the paper and its way forward. He also emphasised on the future working of the Ministry and CSE in providing institutional and technical support structures. CSE will work as knowledge partner to help Tanzania to move towards safe sanitation. Mr Anyitike Mwakitalima, Department of health, food, water and Sanitation, Ministry of Tanzania addressed the facts and challenges of Sanitation in Rural Tanzania and suggested the way forward.

Discussion on challenges in providing safe sanitation systems, proper disposal was also talked about in the meeting. The meeting was made interactive with participants asking questions to the speakers and giving constructive feedback.

The paper focuses more on the solution for the rural areas, as most of the people in Tanzania live in rural areas and taking the rural areas towards safe sanitation will help the country in achieving the SDG on sanitation. The paper with specific key issues of Tanzania outlines the recommendations which are relevant, however, for much of the sub-Saharan region which faces a similar predicament.

CSE has been working on the subject of rural sanitation in Africa and India for many years now. 

Andrew, one of the participants says ’Sanitation improvement requires some technological advancement which actually it costs. We need also to focus on better communication strategies based on behaviour change of the people. Through Behaviour Change one can easily accept the change especially in rural settings’.

 Stephan Epaphras says ‘I appreciate for the overview report of state of sanitation in Tanzania’.