Review Paper Trends for sanitation practices in Tanzania: the history from colonial to current times Chaeka Semango Mwesongo * and Augustino Edgar Mwakipesile Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Dodoma, P.O. Box 259, Dodoma, Tanzania *Corresponding author. E-mail: csemango@yahoo.com CSM, 0000-0001-6253-1032; AEM, 0000-0003-0933-3955 ABSTRACT Although sanitation is a fundamental human right, over 26,500 people die annually due to inadequate sanitation in Tanzania. This situation involves a loss of approximately 301 billion TZS (US$ 206 million). Administrative challenges are part of inadequate sanitation contributors as government actors who took over power after colonization were trained by and emulated the former rulers. Although researchers have researched sanitation practices, few have examined Tanzania’s history of sanitation. The paucity of studies on the history of sanitation hin- ders efforts to address sanitation issues resulting from historical flaws. This review examines the history of sanitation practices in Tanzania, especially the provision of sanitation facilities from colonial times to the present time. In this study, Dar es Salaam received more attention because it was Tanganyika’s major urbanized area during colonialism. Thus, it exerted more pressure on sanitation infrastructure. The find- ings indicate that inequity characterized colonial sanitation provision. After independence, the government’s role to improve sanitation was strengthened. However, the emphasis was put on interventions which were top-down, prioritizing latrine construction of any form while dis- regarding the history of sanitation practices. Further progress could be achieved by considering home-grown solutions and equality in the provision of sanitation services. Key words: colonial times, history, sanitation practices, Tanzania HIGHLIGHTS • Sanitation practices during colonial times in Tanganyika. • Post-independence Government Plan to promote access to sanitation for all. • Sanitation practices after independence in Tanzania. • The article may contribute to the academic community and practitioners who work with sanitation management in Tanzania. INTRODUCTION Tanzania continues to make slight progress in improving sanitation practices despite efforts dating back to the 1970s. There- fore, it is important to review Tanzania’s sanitation practices to identify historical underlying causes of inadequate sanitation. Inadequate sanitation has increasingly become a threat to the economy and people’s health in Tanzania as deaths from sani- tary disease have led to 301 billion TZS (US$206 million) loss, or 1% of gross domestic product (GDP) (World Bank 2018). This cost is comparable to US$5 per citizen annually, with an estimated 26,500 deaths every year (The Economic and Social Research Foundation 2016; World Bank 2018). Since the 1970s, sanitation interventions have been launched nationwide to educate the public about the value of hygiene (Malebo et al. 2012, 2016). These interventions which had prospects to improve sanitation included Mtu ni Afya (Health is Life), Health through Sanitation and Water (HESAWA), and National Sanitation Campaign (NSC). Despite all these efforts, inadequate sanitation persists. Partly, inadequate sanitation is linked to the little attention accorded to Tanzania’s history of sanitation practices. Inadequate attention to Tanzania’s history of sanitation practices has made it difficult to identify the administrative challenges that might have led to inadequate sanitation. As a result of ignoring historical-grown solutions, interventions emphasizing human behaviors that changed from time to time, with varied scales of coverage, and the target population have been employed to address the crisis for about 50 years. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits copying, adaptation and redistribution, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). © 2023 The Authors Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development Vol 00 No 0, 1 doi: 10.2166/washdev.2023.158 corrected Proof Downloaded from http://iwaponline.com/washdev/article-pdf/doi/10.2166/washdev.2023.158/1204524/washdev2023158.pdf by guest on 08 April 2023