Who should take the garbage out? Public opinion on waste management in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Across the developing world, rapid urbanization is creating new governance problems. This article investigates the challenge of municipal waste management in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We conducted a survey of 450 respondents across all three municipalities of Dar es Salaam to analyze the relationship between satisfaction with waste management services and preference for government leadership in the sector. We find that people who are dissatisfied with their current waste management service are twice as likely to prefer government leadership over alternatives, such as community organizations, than people who are satisfied. The finding is consistent with the hypothesis that, since the government is currently not active in waste management, citizens prefer more policy intervention if they consider their current situation unacceptable. To our understanding, this is the first article to use survey data to analyze the role of public opinion in waste management in a major city in a developing country.