Environment, Poverty and Sustainable Development

Permanent URI for this community

http://192.168.30.20:4000/handle/123456789/46

Browse

Browsing Environment, Poverty and Sustainable Development by Subject "degradation"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    The use of phytoremediation technology for abatement soil and groundwater pollution in Tanzania: opportunities and challenges
    (Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa, 2008) Mwegoha, William J. S.
    Contamination of soil and groundwater from anthropogenic sources is a major concern in many developing countries including Tanzania. Improper handling of Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) in many urban centers in Tanzania has often resulted into gas emissions and generation of leachate, which pose threat to the environment. Additionally, the use of pesticides for agricultural purposes is on the increase because of the need to improve crop production and control of pests, weed infestation and insect outbreaks. As a consequence, pesticide use has caused adverse contamination in soils and waters. The potentially negative impacts of these pesticide stocks on humans and the environment are of major concern. To make the situation more challenging, the country has experienced a substantially fast growth of the mining sector in many parts of the country over the past ten years, which has resulted in reported soil and water pollution from acid mine drainage with elevated concentrations of heavy metals. It is estimated that more than 30% of the Tanzanians depend on groundwater as their source of water. Most of the conventional methods for environmental remediation of these sites are expensive and often poorly implemented or not implemented at all. Thus, there is a clear need to develop new cost effective and environmentally friendly clean-up methods to remediate the contaminated areas in Tanzania. Phytoremediation is a relatively new and promising technology that uses plants to degrade, stabilize, metabolize or sequester potentially toxic compounds from the environment. This paper is aimed at assessing the potential of phytoremediation as a low-cost alternative, but which has yet to be studied and used in Tanzania.