First INNOQUA Open Day in Tanzania

Opening doors to nature-based solutions

On 2 March 2020, the INNOQUA demo site in Dar es Salaam opened its doors to visitors. At the first INNOQUA Open Day in Tanzania, stakeholders from country’s sanitation sector learnt about the benefits of natured-based wastewater treatment systems and had the opportunity to discuss their scale-up potential in Tanzania. The attendees – including representatives from research institutes, local government authorities, regulators, municipalities and NGOs – agreed that some INNOQUA technologies, like the lumbrifilter, can be considered among the possible solutions to social and environmental challenges associated with the lack of sanitation.

The INNOQUA system aims to address the water treatment needs of rapidly growing and/or water-scarce cities in the global North and South through the implementation of decentralized nature-based solutions and water reuse approaches. The INNOQUA technologies are based on the purification capacity of earthworms, zooplankton (e.g. Daphnia sp.), microalgae and sunlight.

In Dar es Salaam, the INNOQUA system treats the wastewater from five households in a low-income community in the Mlalakuwa subward. Starting in August 2019, 1500L of wastewater per day is being treated with the INNOQUA system, while the effluent is being used to irrigate a banana plantation that serves the daily diet of the nearby community.

For more information about the INNOQUA project, please visit innoqua-project.eu.

Photography credit (all photos): Gervaz Lushaju