Dar es Salaam

Last week we (Gijsbert and Louis Pierre) started a pilot version of the focus group session, with six volunteers. Patrick and Lydia, two Tanzanian students (wana funzi)of the university of D’ Salaam, helped us doing the session.

Although it was just a first trail we immediately got some interesting responses.
• They categorised their own water attributes with decreasing importance: Cleanness (most important), Type/brand, Taste, Price, Origin of the water (source), Surroundings in which the water is bought, Temperature and Appearance of the unit that contains the water.
• After we asked them the grade different water products (like bottled water, water filters, boiling buckets etc). They really had a strong argue with each other! Each of them preferred its own product, by several different reasons. Apparently this group had some diverse preferences for products.
• During Ramadan people urn less income, because many customers (40 % Muslims) of Dar consume a lot less.
• One participant suddenly asked whether she could use the filter for some time, to filter the water she is selling to her customers. She will use the filter for a week and will be interviewed afterwards.

In the suburbs of D’ Salaam we found different kind of water sources. Some people used wells, SimTanks, tap water, and the river Ruvu. We often see the Simtanks placed on roofs, which are used for water storage, sinking the sand and creating water pressure.