EHJ April 2003, pages 124-25 Managing waste in Tanzania's largest city is a daunting task as EHO Vanessa Nourse found while working for an environmental health department in Dar-es-Salaam's Temeke district. Here she highlights the serious health issues linked to waste disposal

Dar-es-Salaam covers an area of 1,800km2 and has a population of approximately 3.8 million. Thirty percent of the area is urban and 90 per cent of the population lives in this area. This creates an interesting challenge for dealing with the waste that is produced.

The city is governed overall by the Greater City Council with decentralised powers given to the three municipal councils (Temeke, Kinondoni and Illala), which make up the city. Within Temeke district there are 73 wards and 302 urban mtas (sub wards).

An estimated 2,200 tonnes of solid waste is generated per day. The solid waste that is collected is then transported to a central dumpsite. Frighteningly, industrial and hazardous waste, including hospital waste is dumped at the same site as the domestic waste. While walking across the site it is not unusual to see items such as hypodermic needles among the waste. Scavenging among this waste are the "waste pickers" who collect items, including glass, scrap metal, plastic and paper for selling to middlemen who accumulate sufficient quantities to sell to end users such as Aluminium Africa (aluminium scrap), Kioo Ltd (glass) and Simba Plastics (plastics).

These "waste pickers", who scavenge on the dumpsite without any protection against disease or injury, are shown in the picture on page 125 of the journal. With unemployment running high in urban areas "waste pickers" have been known to generate an income through retrieving, sorting and the selling of reusable or recyclable waste for a long period of time. In Dar-es-Salaam this activity is estimated to provide extra income for around 600-700 people.

Yet another problem is that posed by non-biodegradable materials such as plastics. In some cases, the land has collapsed from the weight of the refuse taking with it several homes.

Another alarming feature of the dumpsite is the lack of containment/collection of leachate (the polluting poisonous liquid which seeps through a dump site extracting substances from the deposited waste). The leachate that is produced runs freely into the adjacent river where people wash and collect water for their daily use. The water in this area is visibly brown from the polluting effects of the leachate.

A similar problem exists at the closed dumpsite at Mtoni, which is located centrally within the city boundaries. Here 10 years' worth of refuse is left to produce streams of poisonous leachate which runs unchecked into the river situated only a few metres away. Houses continue to be built on and around this site where there are no measures to control or contain the methane gas. Despite the area being officially closed, it is still possible to easily gain access to the site, which continues to be used for illegal tipping, including abattoir waste (see above). Not surprisingly the incidence of diarrhoeal diseases in the communities around Mtoni is high. Interestingly in 2001 the council was forced to close this site due to a court injunction gained by the residents concerned about the encroaching boundaries of the site.

The issue of dealing with the liquid waste is another major challenge facing the city authorities. The liquid waste ultimately ends up in large oxidation ponds. The only treatment here is a crude form of settlement as the raw liquid passes through a series of three ponds before it discharges directly in to the sea via large open drains. The oxidation ponds are sited in close proximity to the communities living only a few metres away from the ponds' edge. A shocking sight was the discovery of a homemade unlined well that had been dug at the edge of the ponds where a child was seen collecting water for use in the home.

The point at which the liquid waste is discharged into the sea is close to the beach and can be easily traced by the sickening putrid smell. Despite the warning signs posted along the beach, people regularly swim in this immediate area.

Liquid waste produced by the industrial processes is generally transferred to on-site cesspits. The cesspits are emptied privately but the waste is disposed of in to the same oxidation ponds that handle the rest of the city's waste.

All of the liquid waste from the hospital (including the maternity and labour wards) is discharged to a separate holding pond. From here it flows, without any form of treatment, into an open drain and directly into the sea.

Tackling these pollution problems is such an enormous and daunting task in a country where financial resources are severely limited. However, there are some positive moves being made to address these issues albeit on a small scale. In 1995 only 50 tonnes of waste per day were collected and disposed at the central dumpsite. A collection service was available in only five out of 73 wards. By 2002 these figures had increased to nearly 700 tonnes per day being collected, with over 44 wards having a collection service.

The improvement in waste collection has been possible due to the creation of a public-private partnership in 1998. Through accumulated experience and city consultations, an integrated solid waste management (SWM) strategy was designed and adopted with strong top-level support. A direct "fee-for-service" payment was introduced with franchisees encouraged to resell, recycle and compost. More than 2,000 jobs have been created directly and more than 1,000 jobs indirectly (transport, maintenance, security, recycling), and there are now 50 micro and community-based enterprises.

Credit should be given to the progress being made in this area amid severe financial constraints. However, the continuing pollution that is poisoning not only the natural resources but also the people remains a huge concern that should not be ignored by the international community.

Vanessa Nourse works at Ashford Borough Council. When her original plan for working in Tanzania - a health education project with Water for Kids - failed to materialise, Vanessa was put in contact with the environmental health department at Temeke. During her three-month trip, she worked mainly with Temeke's waste management section.

While in Tanzania Ms Nourse was able to film the issues described above and has compiled a video together with photographs. Anyone who is interested in viewing these or providing any technical input should contact her on tel: 01233 330234 or e-mail: vanessa.nourse@ashford.gov.uk