Dar es Salaam is losing its green spaces as Tanzania's cities concrete over
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Tanzania's urban population is projected to reach 59 percent by 2050, and in Dar es Salaam's Sinza ward only 16 of 40 planned open spaces remain unencroached, according to official planning documents.
Tanzania's rapid urban expansion is consuming reserved green space faster than planners can protect it, with river corridors, wetlands and urban forests being replaced by buildings in Dar es Salaam and Dodoma, The Citizen reports, citing government planning documents.
According to the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development's 2025 guidelines and standards for urban planning schemes, Tanzania's urban population rose from 5.7 percent in 1967 to 34.9 percent in 2022 and is projected to reach 59 percent by 2050. Urban centres generate nearly 56 percent of national GDP, but growth is dominated by informal development that erases reserved green areas.
The impact is measurable in Dar es Salaam. The official Sinza Redevelopment Plan (2026-2046) shows that of 40 originally planned open spaces in the ward, only 16 remain unencroached, with 24 swallowed by commercial and residential development. Some 23.37 hectares along the Ng'ombe river reserve have been built over illegally, 75 percent of designated public water kiosk sites have been diverted to unauthorised uses, and 96 percent of surveyed plots are fully built over, leaving just 1.5 percent vacant land.
The problem extends to the capital. The National Environmental Master Plan for Strategic Interventions (NEMPSI 2022-2032) reports that Dodoma lost 85,771.5 hectares of forest and woodland between 2000 and 2020, a 30.6 percent decline that left 52 percent of the capital as bare land. Nationwide, annual deforestation stands at 469,420 hectares, with degradation costing at least five percent of GDP a year.
The ministry says national planning standards allocate between 50 and 64 square metres of public green space per person at neighbourhood level, in line with World Health Organization guidance of 50 square metres, but concedes that some cities fall short because informality deprives them of allocations. It points to interventions in six urban centres: turning the Msimbazi Valley flood zone in Dar es Salaam into a green park with continuous tree-canopy lines along major roads, requiring Dodoma property owners to plant five trees per plot, riverbank works in Mwanza, mangrove restoration in Tanga, and zoning reviews in Arusha and Mbeya.
Enforcement powers already exist. Under the Urban Planning Act No 8 of 2007, revised in 2023, and the 2018 Urban Planning Regulations, change of use for open spaces is prohibited, and the ministry says nationwide land-use audits using GIS, aerial imagery and field inspections are under way, with enforcement notices, removal orders and demolition where construction on reserved public land lacks approval. Urban planner Dr Reuben Shamte told The Citizen that the Sinza plan introduces vertical densification through plot amalgamation to release ground for parks and setbacks, but warned that "what we lack is the influence and awareness of the community regarding public open spaces".