This book, a PhD thesis in human geography, discusses an important topic: the privatisation of public services in Africa. Based on a case study of the water distribution system in Dar es Salaam, the author argues that privatisation brings about two social problems. First, it contributes to a split in society: wealthy city dwellers with tap water and/or water storage at hand, versus the poor lacking such secure access to water. Secondly, privatisation of water delivery undermines the legitimacy of the state, since it entails a transfer of a public good to the private domain. While these points give food for thought, there are also problems.

First, the author's analysis of Tanzania's ‘water-split’ shows that most of Dar es Salaam's inhabitants do not have direct access to the water grid. In the absence of a regulating framework, this logically results in the proliferation of privately financed tertiary service lines, known as ‘spaghettisation’ (p. 116). An emerging class of water vendors serves those without the means to install the necessary hardware to tap the mains. Backed by anecdotal evidence, the author portrays these as opportunistic exploiters who drain financial resources away from the poor by fetching high prices in times of water scarcity. She fails to rebut a rival explanation, however: vendors in Dar es Salaam's extensive water market provide a real service, and could be understood as innovative entrepreneurs who generate value.

Secondly, the author reconstructs the transfer of the Dar es Salaam Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DAWASA) to foreign companies, revealing that after several rounds of negotiations with interested candidates the bidding process came to a standstill. The author ascribes this to confusion between British and French privatisation models that the Tanzanian government drew on, fuelled by DFID's active promotion of British interests; contending foreign companies bailed out as a result. The author therefore concludes that ‘cultural affinities and long-standing trade relations serve to shape the post-colonial geographies of privatisation’ (p. 216). Yet the book's own evidence gives room to an alternative interpretation: the standstill was part of a strategy by the Tanzanian government to avert the costly repair of the dilapidated water infrastructure needed to sell DAWASA.

Thirdly, the author shows that growing numbers of urban dwellers in Dar es Salaam struggle with water shortages. She observes that, rather than voicing their discontent with the Tanzanian state through protest demonstrations, Tanzanians commonly resort to an exit strategy of informal privatisation. However, her explanation for this mode of action is not grounded in the lived experiences of common Tanzanians, but depends on an essentialist reflection on Tanzanian society: ‘Tanzanians have become accustomed to living with crisis and people stoically carry on with their daily chores in spite of misfortune’ (p. 248). By thus disregarding the way Tanzanians solve their problems, there is a tendency in the book to view Africans as victims of socio-economic change.

In conclusion, the merit of this book is an elaborate description of technical and organisational aspects of the water distribution system in a major African town. As such, it will be interesting for the general reader and/or the African geographer. The book however pays disappointingly little attention to political and social processes shaping water services in urban Africa, and may therefore fail to satisfy those interested in the consequences of privatisation in Africa.