Factors Influencing Non-Compliance to Industrial Wastewater Regulatory Framework in Tanzania

Abstract

Enforcement of industrial wastewater regulatory framework in Tanzania has been a challenge despite having a comprehensive Environmental Management Act, Cap 191. The quality of industrial wastewater effluents discharged to the environment is above the permissible limit value of industrial effluents. A study on underlying motivations that encourage or discourage compliance with and enforcement of this Act to regulate industrial wastewater discharges has been conducted. An analysis was made using “The Table of Eleven software whith conceptual scheme that evaluates effectiveness of enforcement activities that generates compliance profile and maps the strong and weak points of the legislation, compliance level and enforcement practices according to the dimensions. Industries in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza cities which discharge effluents in water bodies were used as case studies. The study showed that informal reporting of violators by public, inspections, detection of violators and imposition of sanctions encourages compliance with and enforcement of the Act. Factors that discourage compliance and enforcement include unclear procedures to follow and high costs incurred to comply, poor understanding of the Act and sanctions not being administered proportionate to the severity of non-compliance. The study concluded that awareness raising, compliance monitoring and inspections, application of  sanctions according to severity of violations are important for effective enforcement.