Wakati City Fathers wanachapa usingizi...

[BAK]

...wananchi wanabadilisha majina ya mitaa bila ruhusa ya kufanya hivyo.

Dar is where people get to name their own streets

SEBASTIAN MRINDOKO
Dar es Salaam

THE Dar es Salaam City Council has expressed alarm at unsanctioned changes to street names in the central business district being casually done by some residents without the knowledge or approval of relevant authorities.

There is increasing evidence of traditional street name signposts being pulled down and replaced with new sign posts displaying decidedly strange names all over the city and its suburbs.

One famous street name in the city was even changed to a new foreign name representing a Hindu religious leader.

Reacting to the situation, DCC Director Bakari Kingobi warned that it was against the city’s by-laws for anybody to change street names without authoritative approval.

And according to Kingobi, the Dar es Salaam City Council is the sole authority when it comes to naming streets in the metropolis.

’’It therefore goes without saying that anybody who unilaterally changes street names without our approval, is breaking the law,’’ he told THISDAY in an interview.

He said punitive measures will be taken against any person or institution found to have changed street names without following proper procedures.

’’I am surprised to hear about such cases�I do not know how they came about,’’ he said.

A survey by THISDAY has brought up several such cases, perhaps most notably the famous Kisutu Street in the city centre, which is predominantly inhabited by members of the Asian community.

The original sign post showing ’Kisutu Street’ has been removed, and replaced with another sign post depicting the seemingly-adopted Indian name of ’PRAMUKH SWAMI’.

It has been verified that this is the name of a Hindu religious leader. According to Kingobi, the name change was effected apparently without the knowledge of the city council.

The survey shows that Kisutu is just one of many streets in the city whose Kiswahili names have been changed in favour of discernible Indian names.

Reiterating that it was prohibited for people to change street names on their own, Kingobi noted that doing so would amongst other things confuse Tanzanians and tourists relying on maps to move around the sprawling city.

Meanwhile, apart from tackling the problem of changing street names, the city director said authorities were keen on improving the dilapidated sewage and drainage systems.

’’We cannot rehabilitate all infrastructure destroyed by rains at once, because we don’t have the funds. But sooner or later, after finishing repairs on city roads, we will start working on the sewerage systems,’’ he said.

He conceded that the city’s drainage system was outdated and in need of major rehabilitation.

 

[BAK]

Dar governance system is not working: Revamp it!

2008-04-27 10:49:59
By correspondent Theonestina Kaiza-Boshe

If I were to write this article before the second week of April this year, I would have to own up to everything I wrote if I were to be challenged by the Dar es Salaam City and municipal council authorities.

For then my article would have been based on personal observations and assessment of the state of affairs and I would not know if there was a critical mass of others who would had observed the same and came to same conclusions.

I would also not know if any of the concerned authorities would concede to any of the observations. Thank goodness a TV programme on the Bonde la Mpunga flood crisis that was aired on April 11th, 2008, and associated media reports changed all that!

DAR ES SALAAM CITY DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT

Among the reports that were aired on TV that day, I found two as interesting as they were revealing of the state of affairs concerning failures in Dar es Salaam City development management and local government responses to consequent woes and disasters.

These were a call-in by a doctor who identified herself as a resident of the affected area and a leader in her own right, and the other was a TV reporter`s interview with the Dar es Salaam City Council Mayor.

The lady doctor caller, going by the name Dr. Majasho, expressed overwhelming frustration over Bonde la Mpunga flood devastation and absence of substantive intervention by authorities, citing visits by the MP of Kinondoni, the Mayor and other dignitaries as having been to no avail and appealing to the Government to intervene immediately.

The hugely alarmed doctor characterized the situation as a crisis requiring emergency response, citing the growing number of patients with flood related health problems she was receiving as an example of conditions requiring such attention.

CITY COUNCIL BLAMED
The City Mayor, for his part, in his response to a TV reporter�s interview, made an observation to the effect that his council and those of the three municipalities were being blamed for woes for which they were not the only ones responsible and over which they had no control.

For intervention, the Lord Mayor called for a meeting of the stakeholders to discuss the problems.

The Lord Mayor`s response thus confirmed the lady doctor`s cause for frustration and that of affected residents, to the dismay of the majority of Dar es Salamites who live in the city`s slums; that the leaders who paid visits to areas of devastation were helpless and that it was not clear who was really responsible for intervention.

The other interesting thing about Dr. Majasho�s cry is that it is truly representative of the only two recourses that Dar es Salamites have in such situations.

They can either talk to the media in the hope that others, including responsible authorities, would get to know about the problem and come to their rescue; and/or ask the local leaders (themselves government!) to appeal to the Government to intervene.

The latter is pursued in the hope that the local leaders would know which arm of the government is responsible!

POWERLESSNESS OVER PROBLEMS

Thus when the city mayor expresses powerlessness over problems like Dar`s notorious street flooding and clogged-up or absent storm water drainage, and resorts to calling for a stakeholders` meeting at a height of a calamity, there is no prize for guessing that something is seriously wrong with the governance system of the city and its municipalities.

In any case, the helplessness that is exhibited by Dar urban authorities in situations like the Bonde la Mpunga floods, and the ineptitude that has become the hallmark of some municipal and mtaa functionaries in discharging their development management responsibilities are very hard to fathom.

LACKING IN LEGAL MANDATES

For, it is not like urban authorities are lacking in legal mandates; as the law that established them provides them with wide ranging mandates to administer and manage all kinds of situations, as well accord them the autonomy necessary to make timely decisions in times of emergencies.

Moreover, the local government law provides for regulatory and consultative working relationship between the local and central government, as and when such needs arise.

On top of that, there are complementary and supportive entities such as the disaster management unit, sustainable cities initiatives, Habitat for Humanity, the University College of Lands and Architectural Sciences (UCLAS), the National Land Use Planning Commission, and a wide range of NGOs and consultants for the city and municipal authorities to turn to for technical assistance.

Often, in situations like Bonde la Mpunga crisis, financial resource constraints are presented as the major obstacle; but for Dar infrastructure related problems, financial reasons do not hold water.

This is because even in cases where financial resources have been made abundantly available as in the case of the World Bank funded Dar es Salaam Water Supply and Sanitation Project, ineptitude and corruption have meant that only a fraction of its deliverables can be realized.

WATER AND SEWAGE COMPONENTS

This truism can only be changed by some herculean corrective intervention in the remaining part of the project tenure.

Even that would not bring it anywhere near the 75% and 100% performance level for the domestic water and sewage components, respectively, as recently claimed on TV by a senior DAWASCO official!

If we can have citywide projects like one mentioned above, that are meant to rid the city of its eternal woes in accessing domestic water and waste water disposal facilities end up the way the project is being managed; and when the floods come around the city and municipal leaders respond with helpless rhetoric, there can be no doubt that we do not have appropriate governance system in place.

And it is not just project management that is at issue. Look at Dar streets.

In spite of Dar es Salaamites contributing more than other cities to the Road Fund, Dar streets are no match to those of smaller and younger cities like Iringa and Mwanza!

One wonders; if the latter two cities can have well designed and constructed streets, complete with drains, side walks and drive-way links, street names, etc.., why can`t Dar?

One can go on and on to mention areas of disturbing weaknesses in the management of Dar es Salaam City development, and all will almost invariably point to governance problems as the major cause.

Given Dar`s precarious coastal location, the population dynamics, global warming and other environmental concerns, we cannot afford to let things continue this way, as doing so would be courting disaster.

It is thus time the Dar City and municipal councils` institutional framework, mandates and operational modalities were reviewed with the view to bringing them in line with the imperatives of managing Dar es Salaam city development that is safe and sustainable; both socio-economically and environmentally.

tkaiza@gmail.com

SOURCE: Sunday Observer

 

[Lunyungu]

Wakati wakuu wanapeleka pesa Nje na EPA kuleta pesa kimya kimya na wahindi nao nadhani wameona wafanye kweli .Serikali iko likizo wanajipanga kukabiliana na Tsunami la matukio haramu.

 

[MwanaHabari]

Wakati wakuu wanapeleka pesa Nje na EPA kuleta pesa kimya kimya na wahindi nao nadhani wameona wafanye kweli .Serikali iko likizo wanajipanga kukabiliana na Tsunami la matukio haramu.

Aisee these people have balls to change street signs...serikali yetu iko wapi