Dilapidation of urban water bodies systems is a worldwide problem that creates a challenge in most developing countries. In overall, rivers and lakes in urban areas tend to be severely degraded in terms of ecology compared to rural areas (Gurnell & Souch, 2007).

Rapid urbanization and informal settlements has made the pollution situation of urban rivers and lakes progressively dangerous, which costs many ecological services. The urban growth has resulted in an increase of informal settlements which leads to the severe increase of waste disposals across lake or river.

Rapid development and huge population growth has happened over the past ten years in the urban centers of Tanzania. Currently, one third of the total urban population in Tanzania lives in Dar es Salaam and the population raises with a rate of almost 5 per cent per year (UN-Habitat, 2010), this has led to the urban sprawl and expansion of informal settlements.

The picture taken is an example of informal settlements that discharge their solid waste across river mwananyamala in Dar es Salaam. I think the following could have been done to solve this problem in any developing countries taking Tanzania as a case study.

Local government should introduce a nearby solid waste disposal, prevent human activities on the area, provisional of enough education on the importance of environmental conservation, introduce plan that involves repeatedly water quality and finally introduce regulation, laws and legislation toward the use of the river.