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Eastern Africa countries are faced with similar development challenges including high population growth
rate, low agricultural productivity, increasing number of agro-processing industries, pollution and contamination of
water sources by agro-processing industrial wastes, inadequate energy supplies and climate change effects such as
extreme drought and flooding. It is therefore imperative to address these challenges in an integrated and regional
manner, in which key stakeholders including the public and private sectors are actively engaged. The goal of this
Consortium is to contribute to climate change mitigation, environmental sustainability, and agricultural development
by applying strategic waste management innovation systems in Eastern Africa (focussing on Ethiopia, Tanzania and
Uganda). Specifically the project aims to: (1) Strengthen capacity to sustainably manage agro-process wastewater in
Eastern Africa; (2) Develop and optimize innovative wastewater treatment processes integrating biogas production
and water/nutrient reuse for enhanced industrial and agricultural productivity in Eastern Africa and; (3) Evaluate and
disseminate the economic, environmental and social benefits of the integrated wastewater treatment bioprocesses. We
will achieve our objectives by use of appropriate technologies that will be designed, developed and optimized to
achieve: (1) better treatment of agro-process wastewaters (slaughterhouse, tannery and Banana wine processing
wastewaters) in Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania, respectively and; (2) generation of useable by-products such as
biogas, bio-fertilizers, and agricultural products (vegetables, flowers, animal feed/pasture grass) from wastewater
treatment processes. Through this integrated wastewater treatment approach, we will contribute to environmental,
social and economic development of Eastern African countries including reduction in pollution and contamination of
water sources receiving agro-processing wastewaters, reduction in incidences of water related diseases such as
diarrhoea, reductions in emission of greenhouse gases (GHG); generation of renewable energy source (biogas), slow
down the rate of deforestation for firewood and charcoal, reduce indoor air pollution (IAP) and respiratory diseases
since Biogas burns smoke free, and improve agricultural productivity by provision bio-fertilizers.
The proposed Consortium hinges on lessons learned from the successes and challenges of previous
SIDA/SAREC projects in Eastern Africa, especially BIO-EARN programme phase 3 which carried out treatment of
slaughterhouse wastewater at City Abattoir (Uganda) and tannery wastewater at Modjo Tannery (Ethiopia). Whereas
the project treated these industrial wastewaters, they were not economically sustainable because they did not addvalue
to wastes by integrating hydroponic systems for vegetables and flowers cultivation, production of useable byproducts
such as biogas and bio-fertilizers into the treatment process to make it sustainable. The proposed
Environmental Innovation Project Consortium II comprises of scientists from Waste Stabilization Ponds (WSP) &
Constructed Wetland Research and Development group (University of Dar Es Salaam - UDSM), Department of
Biochemistry (Makerere University - MAK), School of Graduate Studies University of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia -
AAU), National University of Rwanda (NUR), and AKUT Burkard and Partner (Germany, www.akut-umwelt.de,
AKUT). The private sector partners involved in this consortium include Bassajabalaba Hides and Skins - City
Abattoir (Uganda), Modjo Tannery, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), and Banana Investments Ltd, Arusha, (Tanzania). Each
scientific partner contributes technical skills, experiences and synergies to the Consortium: UDSM has engineers
with technical experiences in constructed wetland technologies; AKUT Partner has experience in designing and
installation of industrial scale biogas digester plants; MAK and AAU have experiences in operation of reactors and
constructed wetlands treating slaughterhouse and tannery wastewaters, respectively. On the other hand,
Bassajabalaba Hides and Skins, City Abattoir (Uganda) and Modjo, Tannery (Ethiopia) both have over four years
(2006-2010) experience in operation of integrated technologies treating high strength slaughterhouse and tannery
wastewaters, respectively, under the SIDA/SAREC supported BIO-EARN project. Whereas Banana Investments Ltd,
Arusha (Tanzania) have not participated in similar arrangements, they have committed strong technical, financial and
in kind support towards the success of the proposed Consortium project. The proposed Consortium project is
anticipated to run on budget of USD 1,199,684 over a period of three years (2011 -2013). |
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