Sustainable Mwanza Programme

Mwanza City Council Sustainable Mwanza Programme

Integrating Cleaner Production in Sustainable Cities Programme
2nd Africa Roundtable on Cleaner Production and Sustainable Consumption
Arusha 14 – 15 March, 2002

by . L. K. Batare, P. Karangwa

EXPERIENCE OF MWANZA IN CLEANER PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION

AND RECOMMENDATION AS TO HOW IT CAN BE INCLUDED

IN SUSTAINABLE CITIES PROGRAMME

 

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Mwanza City is situated on the shores of Lake Victoria in northwest Tanzania. It occupies an area of about 1325 square km of which about 900square km is covered by water and 425square km is dry land area. About 86.8 square km of the dry land area is urbanised and the rest consist of forestland, valleys and cultivated plains, grassy, undulating and rocky hill areas. It lies at an altitude of 1140 metres above sea level and is characterized by gently undulating granites with isolated hill masses and rocky inselberg.
The population of Mwanza is now estimated at 600,000 with an annual growth rate of 11% of which 3% is natural and 8% is from migration.
Mwanza is the second largest city in Tanzania serving as the administrative service centre for the Mwanza Region, the Lake Victoria zone and neighbouring countries of the Great Lake Region. It is also a terminus of national railway line from Dar es Salaam, has one of the most important and busy airports in the country and region and has an important port. It is also a
major transit centre for goods destined for neighbouring countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Residents in Mwanza depend mostly on small scale farming, fishing and commercial activities as well as employment in the public and private sector. Industries and agricultural activities dominate the economy with more than 100 small to large-
scale manufacturing and processing industries. The largest group are food and beverage processing concerns such as fish processing industries, cottonseed oil, breweries, soft drinks factories, bakeries etc. Other industries are involved in timber processing, garages, fabricating workshops, ginneries, foam and plastic factories, tanneries, soap making, quarry sites and
animal feeds production.
Mwanza City Council is one of 13 urban authorities of Tanzania involved in the Sustainable Cities Programme which started with Dar-es-salaam in Tanzania way back in 1992 as a result of Rio Summit. Mwanza joined Sustainable Cities Programme following the decision to replicate it to all municipalities in Tanzania. The programme called for institutionalisation of the
Environmental Planning and Management (EPM) Process i.e involvement of various stakeholders in various planning process and collective decision making. So, Mwanza started this process effectively in 1998 through the Capacity Building for Environmental Management Project which later came to be known only as Sustainable Mwanza Programme (Danida Support
Project) which is on going. It is through these phases the city initiated the Cleaner Production Technology.

2.0 CLEANER PRODUCTION INTRODUCTION IN MWANZA.

Cleaner Production concept was introduced in Mwanza City for the first time in 1998, during the Consultation workshop by Prof. Cleophas Migiro, Director of Cleaner Production Centre of Tanzania who presented a paper on the subject. This consultation workshop was organized in order to introduce the SMWP/Capacity Building for Environmental Management (CBEM) Project and to bring together various stakeholders from the then Mwanza Municipal Council to identify environmental problems to be addressed during project implementation.
Several environmental problems were identified by citizens of Mwanza which are; Liquid and Solid Wastes, Unplanned Settlements, Informal sector/Petty trade, Urban agriculture and Recreation Areas and Transport and Transportation. After consultation workshop, Working Groups(forums for various stakeholders to deal with specific prioritised issues)were formed and worked thoroughly in identification of sources of problems. It was found that industries were main sources of liquid and solid waste. Industries contributes about 59% of Solid waste generated daily(out of 850t/day,500t/day is from industries)and about 50% of Liquid waste discharged per day(out of 6.5 million lts/day of waste water,3.2 million lts/day are from the
industries). So, Cleaner Production Technology was considered to be one of the solutions to these problems and was thus included in the list of activities to be done. This was seen to be one way of addressing the problems in an affordable and efficient mean and at the same time protect the environment.
Prioritisation of this strategy coincided with the Cleaner Production Centre of Tanzania’s National training Programme to industries and local authorities staff from 8 selected Municipalities in 1999. Mwanza was represented by 2 participants who were all staff of the Mwanza Municipal Council. Later, the Cleaner Production Centre was consulted by the SMWP/CBEM to offer its expertise in this field and trained participants from 12 industries, City abattoir, NGOs and other government institutions such as water authorities and Regional Water Engineers office.

3.0 WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO DATE:

3.1 Training:
Having been impressed by the idea of Cleaner Production, various environmental projects included it in their implementation programs. As a result, two parallel training programmes,one by Cleaner Production Centre of Tanzania [CPCT] through The SMWP/ Capacity Building [CBEM] Project and another one by the Lake Victoria Environmental Management project
[LVEMP] were conducted in Mwanza to 12 enterprises and other stakeholders such as NGOs and Government institutions. The trainings took about 8 months period and was conducted by plenary sessions and in-plant training.
During this training, the trainees were supposed to go through their workplace to assess and identify the waste streams in their respective production lines. From assessments, several waste streams were identified and put under three categories of CP implementation in order to combat them.

  • Short-term options: The options, which are to be implemented immediately.
  • Medium term options: The options that wanted some feasibility study before implementation.
  • Long-term options: The options which were to take long-time before implementation i.e options that require heavy investments.

 

3.2 Cleaner Production Implementation
During Cleaner Production implementation it was surprising to see most waste streams under short-term options and some of medium term options reduced tremendously the volume of waste water discharged into Lake Victoria by simple and low cost techniques such as:-

  • Good house keeping practice
  • Control of leakages
  • Awareness raising and sense of ownership to workers
  • Change of devices
  • Improved Occupational Health and safety practices
  • Recycling/Re-use of waste products eg. Water for cooling machine

 

3.3 Environmental Screening
The successes recorded as a result of Cleaner Production implementation were based on baseline general data from Regional Water Engineer-Water Laboratory. So, Environmental Screening was done to establish the actual amount of waste discharged which would later form a basis for monitoring progress of Cleaner Production techniques application.

3.4 Study Tour
This was organised by Sustainable Mwanza Programme in order to give chance to active participants in the process from industries to see similar initiatives in developed countries. So,10 participants out of which 7 were from industries went to Denmark for 10 days study tour. They visited industries with similar activities such as breweries, fish processors,
fishmeal industries and wastewater treatment plant.

4.0 ACHIEVEMENTS MADE FROM INVOLVEMENT IN CLEANER PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY

Seven(7) active industries and the City Council itself have been involved in the process which has contributed in reducing the waste water discharged and amount of Solid waste generated. Economically/Financially: It has led to raised production efficiency, employment opportunities and savings in production and running costs. For example by implementing simple Cleaner Production options, one industry , Vic Fish (Fish processing industry) could save as follows:-

  • Due to Good house keeping Tshs. 1,800,000/= Equivalent to USD 2000 was saved without any investment
  • Due to Control of leakage Tshs. 4,412,160/= Equivalent to USD 5000 was saved after investing only Tshs.50000/= Equivalent to USD 55 and pay back period was less than a week
  • Change of workers behaviour in term of time wastage Tshs.1,080,000/= Equivalent to USD 1200 was saved without initial investment.
  • Change of devices such as pushbuttons and flow rate control Tshs. 9,399,000/= Equivalent to USD 10,000 was saved after investing only Tshs.500000/= Equivalent to USD 550 and pay back period was less than one month
  • Installation of power factor Tshs. 60,000,000 Equivalent to USD 62,000 was saved within one year
  • Recycling water of cooling machines Tshs. 14,600,000/= Equivalent to USD 15000 was saved just by changing the system and there was no significant investment.
  • Re-use of by products Tshs. 24,000,000/= Equivalent to USD 25,000.was saved by selling the fish by-products which were being thrown away and caused eyesore and foul smell Environmentally, CP has contributed in reducing the amount of Solid waste generated and waste water discharged , suspended solids in wastewater was controlled as well as the BOD and COD were fairly controlled

 

5.0 BARRIERS ENCOUNTERED IN CLEANER PRODUCTION IMPLEMENTATION.

 

– Lack of commitment of most private enterprises top\ executive management
– Inadequate or lack of trained personnel
– Lack / inadequate funds for implementation
– Misconception of the term “Cleaner” which to many meant additional production cost and to some they thought they are “Cleaner” so no need for getting themselves
involved
– Reluctance of some of the enterprise owners to adopt the technology at the beginning
– It was thought to be an extra work
– Fear to be monitored by Revenue Authorities, as the saving would add to the profit, which has to be taxed.

6.0 HOW THE BARRIERS WERE LIFTED

Increased awareness by CBEM\SMWP, Cleaner Production Centre of Tanzania (CPCT) and Mwanza City Council to the participating enterprises.

  • Experience sharing by showing live examples on the benefits of Cleaner Production
  • Advice to enterprises to employ trained personnel
  • To advice and encourage the top management to commit trained and senior staff in the implementation of Cleaner Production
  • To formulate Cleaner Production teams at each workplace.

7.0 RECOMMENDATION

Cleaner Production is an effective way of addressing problems associated with environmental pollution from industries. So, when we are involved in Sustainable
development we have to consider its implementation and make it our part and parcel as it is a proactive approach rather than reactive approach in day to day management of environment.

8.0 CONCLUSION

Cleaner Production Technology is a timely technology in developing Africa Countries as it works in a proactive way rather than reactive way. It can be included in various
Sustainable Management Programmes as part of activities or sub projects as it is done in very participatory way and it is affordable in most cases. If this technology is adapted now we are assured of avoiding a serious environmental pollution for future generation. However, serious commitment is needed and in certain cases heavy investment becomes one of the options

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