Since the launch of Ramani Huria in 2015, we have been working to improve resilience to flooding in Dar es Salaam via community mapping techniques. The project has trained university students and community members to create sophisticated and highly accurate maps of their city that have been used to bring disaster prevention and response to areas that were previously left off the map.
2 million citizens affected
29 wards mapped
1254 km waterways mapped
3396 km roads mapped
450 mappers trained
10 disaster prevention teams established
Accolades
Picture in your mind what Dar es Salaam looks like today and what it will look like in the future – how systems will be able to manage the growth. Ramani Huria shows that we can plan today for a safe and resilient tomorrow using inclusive processes with a holistic view for the future. – Julie Arrighi, American Red Cross
You see that we exhaust a lot of resources – and this data provided by Ramani Huria allows us to allocate our resources more efficiently. – Christopher Mwanza, Head of the Dar es Salaam Multi Agency Response
Before this project, our base maps were over 20 years old. Since then, a lot of development has happened – and working with those base maps we waste more time while more development is taking place. This is the best map made of the area, and it belongs to the community. – Juliana Letara, Head of the Department of Urban Planning, Kinondoni Municipality
I congratulate Ramani Huria for the work that they do and expect that these maps will be included in the Dar es Salaam Master Plan. – Hon. Isaya Mwita, Mayor of Dar es Salaam
Atlas of Flood Resilience
Outcomes
Using fresh and innovative approaches can help reduce risks from urban flooding in an environment of rapid urbanization;
Mapping needs to be sustainable at all levels, with a curriculum in community mapping for the continued training and skill-building of students and town planners;
Data produced by community mapping should be freely accessible by government and citizens;
There is an important role for government institutions dealing with lands, survey and planning to use the data, to authenticate it, and to share these methods with other cities in Tanzania;
Community level disaster preparedness and response teams and plans, now embedded in 10 of the most flood prone communities across Dar es Salaam, provide a critical link between community members and government institutions such as the Dar es Salaam City Council and Dar es Salaam Multi Agency Emergency Response Team.
