Strengths and Weaknesses of Community-Based Systems in Municipal Services Delivery: The Case of a Community-Based Water Supply Scheme in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Towards the end of the 20th century, the world experienced serious deterioration of infrastructure services, thus raising concerns to the global community. Because of that, municipal services delivery, particularly water supply in most cities of the world witnessed institutional reforms and increased participation of non-public actors, including community-based actors. In Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam, community-based water supply schemes have become an important institution through which a number of urban communities get their potable water supply. Although these schemes have established themselves as provider institutions, more knowledge of the extent to which their operations are sustainable is still needed. This paper therefore, discuses strengths and weaknesses of the community-based schemes, in fulfilling their social responsibility of service delivery to the community. The paper is mainly based on primary data together with some document analysis. The data was collected through key informant interviews, focus group discussions and some household interviews. This paper points out that community-based schemes derive their strength for sustainable operations from inter-alia their good organization structures, adherence to the rules, and application of innovative monitoring approaches. Weaknesses are related to outdated system of data storage and processing, and insufficient creativity in competition with other schemes.