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Building and construction deal with the brand-new Jangwani bridge throughout the flood-prone Msimbazi valley in Dar es Salaam. The raised roadway is developed to keep traffic moving when heavy rains swamp the location. Credit: Kizito Makoye/IPS
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, Oct 9 2026 (IPS) – Each early morning on her method to Kariakoo, Clementina Nyangwine watches out of her commuter bus as it crawls through Jangwani and views huge structure stacks increasing above the muddy Msimbazi valley.
Employees in security helmets and high-visibility vests move amongst towering support cages. Cranes swing over the website while excavators, concrete mixers and trucks rumble listed below. Deep structures are being driven into the quagmire for a bridge that will bring among Dar es Salaam’s busiest roadways above the floodplain.
Nyangwine, a 37-year-old storekeeper, remembers what taking a trip through Jangwani resembled when the Msimbazi River rupture its banks.
“I have actually invested hours here awaiting the water to decrease,” she informed IPS. “Sometimes we left the bus and strolled due to the fact that there was no other method to reach Kariakoo. You would get to deal with your clothing taken in muddy water.”
On the worst days, travelers waited on the edge of Morogoro Road as dirty floodwater swept throughout the carriageway.
“You might not inform whether you would reach operate in an hour or 4 hours,” Nyangwine stated. “When I see this bridge showing up, I believe maybe those days are lastly ending.”
The bridge becomes part of the Msimbazi Basin Development Project, an effort to lower persistent flooding in Dar es Salaam as environment dangers heighten.
At the centre of the work is a 390-metre bridge about 8 metres above the existing roadway level, permitting traffic to continue moving even when the Msimbazi swells throughout heavy rains.
The broader building passage stretches for about 1.2 kilometres and consists of technique roadways. The bridge will be around 41 metres large and will accommodate automobiles along with pedestrians, bicyclists and the Bus Rapid Transit system.
In August, the Tanzania National Roads Agency, TANROADS, stated building and construction had actually reached 41 percent.
Structure Above the Flood
Job supervisor Leonard Ngayungi stated the height of the brand-new bridge is main to its style.
“The issue with the existing crossing is that the roadway sits within an active floodplain,” Ngayungi informed IPS. “When the Msimbazi increases, water spreads throughout Jangwani, and the roadway enters into the flood location. We are altering that relationship by taking the transportation facilities above the flood level.”
The bridge is being supported by numerous deep structure stacks driven in between 35 and 42 metres underground, depending upon soil conditions. Of the approximately 496 stacks needed, 404 had actually been finished, according to authorities.
Ngayungi stated the objective is not just to construct a more powerful roadway however to let the river and floodplain bring water without cutting one of the city’s primary transportation links.
“The bridge is being created so that the river can stream constantly below while individuals, buses and other lorries continue to move above.” Ngayungi stated.
“We need to develop for the rains we might deal with in the future, not just the rains patterns individuals keep in mind from 20 or 30 years earlier,” he stated.
A River That Can Stop a City
The Msimbazi is a reasonably little river with an outsized effect on Dar es Salaam.
Its basin is home to around 1.6 million individuals and cuts through largely inhabited areas.
Near Jangwani, 2 of Dar es Salaam’s significant traffic arteries cross the lower floodplain, consisting of the passage utilized by the city’s very first Bus Rapid Transit system.
When the river floods, for that reason, the effects spread out far beyond homes living next to its banks.
Roadways close. Buses stop. Employees show up late. Traders lose consumers. Product can stagnate quickly in between the city centre and its western suburban areas.
Issa Majega, 56, a BRT motorist on the Kariakoo-Kimara path, stated heavy rain can turn a regular journey into hours of unpredictability.
“Once Jangwani floods, everyone suffers,” Majega informed IPS. “The buses can not pass, travelers end up being stranded and traffic develops on other roadways due to the fact that everybody is searching for another path.”
For chauffeurs, he stated, the threat is understanding when to stop.
“You can not bet with a bus loaded with individuals when water is crossing the roadway,” he stated. “Even if travelers remain in a rush, you need to wait.”
Majega thinks the raised crossing might eliminate a relentless traffic jam in the city’s transportation system.
“If this bridge works as created, rain will no longer imply that the entire path needs to stop since of Jangwani,” he stated.
Environment Change Meets Urban Growth
Dar es Salaam’s flooding issue can not be blamed on rains alone.
Quick urban spread has actually pressed settlements into wetlands and floodplains, while structures and roadways have actually minimized the land readily available to take in rainwater. Rubbish chokes drain channels, while sediment has actually collected in parts of the Msimbazi.
About 70 percent of Dar es Salaam’s homeowners reside in casual settlements, numerous with insufficient drain. In 2018, a significant flood in the Msimbazi basin triggered an approximated US$ 100 million in damage– comparable to approximately 2 percent of the city’s gdp, according to World Bank figures.
Deusdedit Rwehumbiza, a metropolitan preparation teacher at Mkwawa University in Iringa, states that is why the task must not be comprehended just as a bridge-building workout.
“The bridge is the most noticeable part since everyone can see the cranes and concrete,” Rwehumbiza stated. “But the genuine concern is how you handle a whole metropolitan watershed.”
“The strength of the Msimbazi method is that it deals with flooding as a land-use, ecological and transportation issue at the very same time,” Rwehumbiza stated.
The task likewise consists of river enhancements, floodplain remediation, watershed management and much better solid-waste management. Parts of the lower basin are meant to end up being flood detention locations that briefly hold excess water.
“That is what environment adjustment need to do,” Rwehumbiza stated. “You provide water someplace safe to go rather of costs every rainy season attempting to eliminate it after it has actually currently gotten in individuals’s homes.”
Moving People Out of Harm’s Way
Around 3,500 homes residing in the Msimbazi floodplain were targeted for resettlement, with US$ 30 million designated for payment. Amongst them was Teresia Katimba, a mom of 4 who relocated to Madale in 2024 after years of sustaining floods that consistently filled her Jangwani home with sewage and rubbish.
“A climate-resilient city can not just move threat from the river to individuals’s incomes,” Rwehumbiza stated. “If households are much safer from floods however can not manage transportation to work, you have actually fixed one issue and produced another.”
US$ 260 Million Bet on Resilience
The World Bank’s International Development Association is offering US$ 200 million in concessional funding, while Spain and the Netherlands are contributing extra funding that brings the plan explained by Tanzanian authorities to around US$ 260 million.
The job, arranged to go through 2028, covers the lower Msimbazi basin and extends work further upstream towards the Pugu Hills.
TANROADS is accountable for the Jangwani bridge works, while other federal government organizations are associated with the redevelopment of the larger valley.
Authorities likewise imagine markets, business advancement and enhanced public transportation in the redeveloped valley.
Rwehumbiza stated the task’s success will likewise depend on managing waste, sediment and advancement upstream.
“You can construct a bridge to last lots of years,” he stated, “however the river is linked to whatever occurring upstream. Environment strength needs preserving the entire system.”
For commuters, the test will begin a rainy early morning when the Msimbazi increases.
For several years, Jangwani has actually represented a strange vulnerability in Dar es Salaam: a brief stretch of roadway where a rainstorm might disrupt journeys throughout a metropolitan area of millions.
As environment modification increases the threats dealing with fast-growing African cities, such powerlessness are ending up being significantly costly.
It will not avoid heavy rain. Nor can one bridge make Dar es Salaam climate-proof.
Nyangwine still keeps in mind getting out of stalled buses, raising her skirt and strolling gingerly along Morogoro Road as dirty water wallowed her legs.
Periodically she reached her Kariakoo store hours late. Often consumers had actually currently left. On the journey home, another rainstorm might start the experience once again.
Now, each time her bus passes Jangwani, she views the employees.
“The river will still flood when the rain is heavy,” she stated. “But if individuals can cross securely above it, then the rain does not need to stop our lives.”
IPS UN Bureau Report
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