EAC to enact laws to deal with e-waste

Dar es Salaam. East African countries have come up with new joint strategies on how to manage obsolete electronic-waste in their countries.

Among five new joint strategies is to ensure that every member state enact laws and policies and construction of infrastructures to enable processing of e-waste.

Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) director of industrial affairs Mr Emmanuel Manasseh on Thursday said that resource mobilisation and manpower are the agreed areas of focus to comb e-waste in the bloc and Tanzania in general.

"Capacity building to the public is another new strength that will help to control e-waste. Because currently a person owns more than one phone and when it gets damaged they don't know where to take it, "he said.

He made the remarks at the closing of fifth East Africa Communication Organization (EACO) regional workshop on sustainable management e-waste.

He said: Due to increased and effective use of technology, we are receiving various electronics which have a high impact on the environment and aviation sector.

Deputy minister of state in the vice president's office (union and environment), Mr Hamza Hamis said that the government has already established some laws and regulations on how to manage the environment, and they are already taking various measures to manage e- waste.

EACO executive secretary Mr Ally Simba said that use of computers is increasing daily, currently 48 per cent of households have computers and 175 per cent are mobile phones users

He noted the use of gadgets and the situation of e-waste has increased tremendously and that is why most East African countries are developing various models to control and manage e-waste.