Msimbazi Opportunity Plan
Msimbazi Opportunity Plan
Location: Msimbazi River Basin, Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaProject type: Vulnerability analysis, strategy and spatial plan
Year: 2018-2019
Client: World Bank (Tanzania) with PO-RALG
Consortium partners: Ecorys, VE-R, CDR International, Wema
The Msimbazi Opportunity Plan is a project in which the participatory design process had a central position in a series of charrettes with the stakeholders and communities that have an interest in and/or who live in the Msimbazi River Basin. This highly urbanised area in the heart of Dar es Salaam, with high percentages of unplanned development, is highly affected by flashfloods during the wet season, and draughts during the dry season.
Generally, flooding in the Msimbazi Middle River Basin is directly caused by five main factors;
- Insufficient hydraulic capacity of the Msimbazi River profile at certain locations,
- Back water effects and piling up of water upstream of structures, e.g. bridges, with an insufficient hydraulic capacity,
- Inadequate urban drainage infrastructure and inadequate solid waste management
- Decrease of ‘green areas’ in the catchment has resulted in reduction of infiltration of precipitation and a direct run off response and
- Settlement in the natural floodplain area.
The objective of this project is to facilitate a design process that tackles the multiple social and environmental issues that this basin is facing by aligning the different stakeholders and to collectively design i) a strategic and management framework for the entire catchment area and ii) a detailed plan for the Lower Basin within the catchment. This has resulted in the Msimbazi Opportunity Plan, a basis for all further development and implementation projects and processes in the coming years in the river basin.
