Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA), in collaboration with GIZ, has launched industrial waste water management guidelines as one of the measures aimed at improving and managing water security in Special Economic Zones (SEZS).
EPZA Director of Planning and Development Lamau Mpolo said in Dar es Salaam at the weekend that the industrial wastewater guidelines would remove long and unnecessary procedures that investors had been facing on how to manage wastewater at low costs.
He said it would be a one-stop centre at the EPZA as well as an online platform through which the industrial wastewater management guidelines could easily be accessed.
The friendly policies as well as efficient and effective systems are much needed in making manufactured goods more competitive in the local, regional and international markets.
He said other institutions that participated actively in developing the guidelines were Ruvu Water Basin, Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) and Dar es Salaam Water and Sewage Authority (Dawasa).
He said EPZs initiatives under the EPZA had been one of the important platforms in attracting investments in the industrial sector that resulted in more jobs created and demand for housing, leading to urbanisation.
For example, a conducive investment environment put by the fifth phase government in the past five years has led to the establishment of over 8,000 new industries which also have created over 400,000 jobs.
However, industrialisation and urbanisation come with increased consumption of water resources that ultimately lead to the production of waste water discharge.
It is from this backdrop that the EPZA partnered with other key stakeholders to initiate the industrial wastewater management guidelines that will play a vital role in ensuring secure management of water resources.
Mr Mpolo said the guidelines would cover all EPZs areas, but also be distributed to other stakeholders, including district councils for efficient and effective wastewater management.
