Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

In 2012, BORDA began construction of a faecal sludge treatment plant (FSTP) in Kigamboni, Dar es Salaam. A local entrepreneur delivers faecal sludge to the plant via his Sludge-Go collection service. The service team consists of three people: one manager and two employees.

A Need for Decentralised Sanitation Solutions

Currently Kigamboni has no communal sewage treatment plant for treatment and disposal of wastewater generated in the area. The majority of households in Kigamboni are using on-site sanitation facilities such as pit latrines, which need regular emptying, treatment and final disposal of the treated water. Timely and effective delivery of these services is especially important during the rainy season, when pit latrines can overflow and create health risks for residents and the environment.

Sludge-Go: Innovation Meets Entrepreneurship

Sludge-Go is a successful business connecting pits, tanks and treatment in Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam. In the city’s tightly packed neighborhoods, workers arrive “on demand” at homes to pump empty the pit latrines and tanks. The treated sludge is sold as fertiliser; the treated water is used to irrigate a banana plantation. Making all this possible: Sludge-Go’s small tractors that can navigate the narrow streets to reach people where they live—a technologically adaptive approach for a fast-growing East African city. BORDA faecal sludge management goes where the sewer doesn’t...from two systems today to city-wide replication in the coming years.

Anatomy of a Plant-Nourishing FSTP

The FSTP comprises a biogas digester (BGD), an anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR), a sludge drying bed (SDB), a French drain and a fish pond. Wastewater from pit latrines and other sources is poured into the BGD, whose main functions are to retain big particles and trap the produced biogas. The biogas is used by the family living at the premises for cooking or heating purposes. The settler is connected to the ABR which provides further treatment of the wastewater and also acts as an expansion chamber for the BGD. The ABR is connected to the French drain which is surrounded by banana plants. The biogas digester is also connected to the SDB whereby stabilized sludge from the bottom of the digester is drained, dried and subsequently used as fertilizer for the banana plantation. The system is designed to work via gravity flow and does not require any electrical energy or chemicals.

Our Aims: Kigamboni and Beyond

The overall objective of this project is to treat and re-use wastewater and faecal sludge to improve living conditions in Kigamboni and decrease health risks for its residents. This project also supports BORDA’s interest in researching the treatment performance and financial viability of decentralized sludge treatment technologies. The goal is to develop, prove, and promote a financially viable technology for small entrepreneurs in the sludge collection service sector. Furthermore, we hope that these solutions focusing on poor peri-urban areas trigger further investments in the sector.