Challenges facing Tanzania water bodies

Rapid urbanization and informal settlements has made the pollution situation of Tanzania 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.

Pollution prevention

Preventing pollution at its source, in industry, agriculture, and human settlements, is often the cheapest, easiest, and most effective way to protect water quality for lakes and any other water body. In an industrial setting, this strategy is commonly called cleaner production, and the need for both government and industry involvement in promoting cleaner production (Cleaner production was articulated in Agenda 21 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, and again ten years later at the World Summit on Sustainable Development).

Pollution prevention is the reduction or elimination of wastes from the source. Source reduction, the first and most important pollution prevention strategy, reduces or eliminates the use of hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants. The elimination or reduction of contaminant use can be accomplished by:

• In industry, reformulating products that produce less pollution and require less resources during their manufacture and use

• In agriculture, reducing the use of toxic materials for pest control, nutrient application, and water usage

• In human settlements, reducing the amount of hazardous materials used and disposed and reducing wastewater production

• Modifying equipment or technologies so that they generate less waste

• Implementing better training, maintenance, and housekeeping so that leaks and fugitive releases are reduced and

• Reducing water consumption.

Pollution prevention is distinct from pollution control in a number of key ways. Pollution control or ?end-of-pipe? practices, such as waste storage and transport recycling (except for in-process recycling) energy recovery waste treatment waste disposal and waste segregation are distinct from pollution prevention in that they treat waste after it has been created. Pollution prevention strives to reduce the overall generation of waste. An important advantage of pollution prevention over pollution control is that the former protects all Mountains.

There are also tremendous financial benefits that can be gained from a pollution prevention approach. Waste is predominantly a cost for a business or utility. Generation of waste in a process is a demonstration of inefficient use of materials and resources pollution prevention can turn waste streams into valuable resource streams. Pollution prevention gets at the root causes of pollution, namely waste and inefficiency. Preventing pollution means less money spent on waste handling, storage, treatment, remediation, and regulatory monitoring.

The following are the measures adopted by Tanzanian local government in controlling water pollution.

Education and awareness building

Improving water quality, preventing point and non-point source pollution, treating wastewater before disposal, and restoring the quality of waterways all require political will. Education and awareness-building campaigns play a critical role in building community knowledge and support for the importance of protecting and improving water quality.

Monitoring/data collection

Measuring the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of surface water and groundwater provides crucial information for identifying, addressing, and tackling water quality problems. By providing baseline data, trends over time, and comparisons between different water bodies, water quality data can help to: 1) determine the impacts of industrial, agricultural, and other human activities 2) quantify the effectiveness of policies and management plans 3) develop water-management models 4) prioritize where management effort should be concentrated and 5) communicate to key stakeholders about pollution, human health concerns, and degraded ecosystems.

Governance and regulation

Water governance refers to the range of political, social, economic, and administrative systems that have developed to allocate and manage water resources, and to implement the water quality solutions discussed above. The term governance includes ?the mechanisms, processes, and institutions through which all involved stakeholders, including citizens and interest groups, articulate their priorities, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations, and mediate their differences? (UNDP-WGF).

Solid waste management and Municipal fines on littering in some municipals

Moshi occasionally called the cleanest town in east Africa, frequently winning the cleanest municipality in Tanzania with better water management. The system of fines on littering was introduced on 1950?s.Since 1999 it has a stakeholder policy for its waste management system, which consists of the municipality, a private contractor and a community based organization. It gathers around 60% of waste, while 20% is composted (plant fertilizer).

References

UN-Habitat (2010). ?Citywide Action Plan for Upgrading Unplanned and Unserviced Settlements in Dar es Salaam: Kenya?. Nairobi: Publishing Services Section. Available: http://www.unhabitat.org/publications.