Tanzania (Dar es Salaam) – Wastewater Treatment

The Problem

EnviPro is an environmental engineering NGO working on a project in the neighborhood of Vingunguti, in Dar es Salaam, to manage waste effluent from Vingunguti Abattoir, a local slaughterhouse. The slaughterhouse is dumping waste directly into the Msimbazi River, posing a significant health risk to residents of Dar es Salaam and surrounding areas, and EnviPro has designed a plan to install a wastewater treatment program for the plant.

Current Activity

With Blacksmith’s support, EnviPro is now working with the local industry and municipality to garner technical and other support for the project and for similar actions at other sites. While the focus remains on the slaughterhouse, EnviPro’s overall goal is the rehabilitation of the Msimbazi River through identification and monitoring of polluting industries along the river’s banks. Water from the polluted river is used by residents for domestic uses and even direct consumption.

The Vingunguti Municipality (owner of the slaughterhouse) has installed drainage channels, replaced the concrete floor, added a fence and is now allowing residents to use manure as fertilizer. Envipro continues to work with local government and NGO groups in an effort to locate and assess the river’s pollution sources, conduct inspections of polluting industries, and compel cleanup actions in the form of wastewater treatment systems, the removal of debris from the river, and curbing pollution of the local waste stabilization pond.