Why industrial emissions remain problematic in Tanzania

Dar es Salaam. Inadequate budget, a shortage of environmental inspectors, and the failure of industrialists and other major emitters to comply with the law are among the challenges that stand in the way of reducing carbon emissions in the country.

Even as emissions increase due to total disregard and violation of the Environmental Management Act of 2004, the government has not been able to inspect about 60 percent of industries.

A few inspections have been conducted by the municipal councils in the Dar es Salaam Region.

Mr Fredrick Mulinda, a Senior Environmental Officer from the National Environment Management Council (NEMC), says the Council is facing budgetary challenges that have made it difficult to conduct studies on the level of carbon produced by industries in the country.

According to the ministry of Industry and Trade, until February this year, there were a total of 80,976 factories.

This included 62,400 micro-industries, 17,274 small industries, 684 medium industries, and 618 large industries. Before the year 2025, over 500 factories will have been built.

“We don’t have the budget and working tools; I think there should be a unit for carbon emission research in industries and vehicles with a sufficient budget. We can be a few experts, but we can cooperate with other institutions with experts, such as the University of Dar es Salaam,” says Mr Mulinda.

He adds, “Without conducting inspections and studies, it becomes a challenge for the government to make legal changes and long-term plans to counter increasing carbon emissions.”

Read: Government ponders e-mobility rules to cut emissions

The statistics of the Tanzania National Carbon Monitoring Centre (NCMC) show that between 1994 and 2014, the amount of greenhouse gases produced in the five sectors of industries—agriculture, energy, land, and waste management—caused an increase in carbon from 100,000,000 to 145,000,000 tonnes.

This is equivalent to an increase of 45,000,000 tonnes within 20 years, while the situation continues to worsen globally, with 30 percent of the world’s population being exposed to bad heat waves that occur more than 20 days a year.

“Those are the national statistics. Next year, we will release a new report. That level may have risen, but it is difficult to know the current situation statistically,” Prof Eliakimu Mnkondo Zahabu, Director of the Tanzania National Carbon Monitoring Centre (NCMC), located at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), says.

The Dar es Salaam Regional Environmental Officer, Mr Valence Urassa, admits that the threat of climate change in the region will increase if there is no willingness to comply with the law and if there is no increase in the number of environmental inspectors.

Mr Urassa cites a specific case by saying that only 12 of the 233 factories established between 2015 and 2019 in the city were inspected between November and December last year at the regional level. This is equivalent to five percent of the industries inspected.

“We have many internal challenges. We have very few inspection officers—we were supposed to have three officers, but currently there is only one—that’s why we only reached 12 factories in the region that has thousands of factories,” says Mr Urassa in an interview.

“Not only that, but people are also supposed to respect laws and regulations in order to lessen the effects of climate change,” says Mr Urassa.

The regulations require that inspections be conducted every six months, but the office has been having difficulties keeping up with the calendar despite other inspections being conducted at the council level.

According to the 2021 guideline regarding investment in Dar es Salaam, the city has 43.1 percent of all industries in the country that produce finished products, including food products, some of which are responsible for contributing to the production of greenhouse gases, as stated by Mr Urassa.

Mr Urassa says between November and December last year, the Ilala District Council inspected 34 out of 42 factories, Temeke (17 out of 55), Kinondoni (eight out of 40), Ubungo (22 out of 75), and Kigamboni (seven out of 21). This is equivalent to only 37.7 percent of the 233 factories that were supposed to be inspected that month.

“In the inspection, 20 percent of factories were found to pollute the air through smoke, and its effects are chest and skin diseases and damage to iron sheets due to the increase in carbon.

Also, the inspection revealed that nearly 50 percent of the contamination of the sewage system threatens living organisms,” says Mr Urassa.

“We have found out that many industries are spilling dirty water into the Ng’ombe, Mbenzi, Kizinga, and Ruhanga rivers.

There are times when you pass near the Ruhanga River and you can see that the water that flows is yellowish and greenish.

It is from factories, and we have been taking legal action against the owners of such industries by imposing fines of between Sh1 million and Sh5 million.”

Mr John Noronha, Monitoring and Evaluation Manager of USAID Tuhifadhi Maliasili, says the lack of basic information is holding back efforts to set plans to deal with these challenges.

“So, the stakeholders have to discuss what is needed to be done so that we can have a lasting solution going forward.”

The Director of the Climate Change Network Tanzania, Dr Sixbert Mwanga, was quoted by The Citizen as saying that there has been an increase in drought in some parts of the countries bordering the Sahara desert. This comes amid a lack of funds to help counter the effects of climate change.

He said that various countries found in the Sahara desert region still face the challenge of using better energy that could have helped control the effects of climate change.

“The countries in the Sahara Desert region need to discuss together in order to be able to know how they can ensure there is better energy demand,” he said.