Complexities of water access in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

•The concept of water access ignores the reliability, quality, and cost of water.•Most residents lack household connections and instead rely on multiple sources of water.•Households can spend a significant portion of incomes on water.•Community-based organizations seek to improve access to water.

Water access is generally measured by the distance to a source of water. This concept of access overlooks important issues such as the reliability, quality, quantity, and cost of water. Using survey data from residents in four of Dar es Salaam's wards, this paper explores the complexity of real water access. Many households have water access on paper, but in reality are forced to obtain water from a variety of sources, including some that are contaminated with salt or sewerage, and spend a significant portion of their incomes on this water. The inadequacies in water provision can be attributed in part to the colonial era, but a lack of expansion or improvement to water infrastructure since independence is also to blame. Community-based organizations have emerged as one way to improve water access.