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In Sub-Saharan Africa, there are numerous cases of industrial effluent being spewed into the environment, posing serious risks.
 
But two innovative projects in East Africa — one in Uganda and another in Tanzania — show that it is possible to gain from industrial effluent and reintegrate them safely into the environment.
 
At the centre of Uganda’s capital city, Kampala, scientists from Makerere University in Uganda, with funding from Bio-resource Innovations Network for Eastern Africa Development (Bio-Innovate) have set up at one corner of an abattoir a pilot waste treatment unit that is producing biogas and biofertiliser.
 
The Tanzanian project, led by Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology in the country, is on a banana wine manufacturing factory in Arusha town in the north of the country and wastewater generated from the process are channelled to a full-scale waste treatment facility that converts it to biogas for powering the factory. The plant also turns solid discharge into biofertiliser. There are plans to also use treated wastewater for irrigation in the nearby farms.
 
The two projects demonstrate good examples of the industry in the region developing environmentally-friendly technologies, and academic institution-industry partnerships using innovations to solve societal challenges.
 
DISCLAIMER: This film was produced with funding from Bio-resource Innovations Network for Eastern Africa Development (Bio-Innovate). Bio-Innovate is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
 
This multimedia has been produced by SciDev.Net's Sub-Saharan Africa desk.