Concern over unhygienic running of city abattoir

MEAT consumers in Dar es Salaam are at risk of being infected by abdominal disease after the survey carried out by this paper has discovered that, the situation of the Ukonga abattoir compound in Ilala district, Dar es Salaam region is extremely in dirty condition. A spot check at the scene early this week can reveal that, there are heaps of scattered cow dug which have been left uncollected for long, thus this situation is likely to pose health risks to skinned meat within the compound. Apart from uncollected filth, the slaughtering of cattle is still being done in the traditional way. The survey has discovered that, usually slaughtered cattle are being hooked up on strong iron bars inclined over the roofs in a slaughter house for safety as well as to let skinners carry out their duties more smoothly and with care. But at Ukonga abattoir things are different as skinners do carry out their work of skinning the slaughtered cattle over the dirty floor which is spotted with blood all over. The blood draining trenches through which the abdominal heaps of cattle dug is forced through are old and needs minor repair, these seems to have not been repaired for long. The heaps around are disposed off in unsanitary manner within the compound as there is no underground sewerage tanks into which to dispose such refuse. But instead, they have deliberately left the stinking heap in an open space giving unpleasant bad smell, an aspect that is posing a health threat to people as well as residents living closer to the abattoir who are occasionally are inconvenienced by such a horrible smell. The practice is against the health directives and contrary to the rules and regulations imposed by the National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) officials, who have been insisting on the maintenance of good environmental conditions by disposing sewerage and refuse in a sanitary manner. When contacted for comments, the Secretary of the union of owners of the abattoir popularly known by its Swahili acronym 'UWEMA' Mr. Hamisi Lemgo said in an interview early this week in Dar es Salaam that, his organization is currently faced with financial squeeze an aspect that makes them to be unable to meet other important operational activities required to be done within the abattoir. However he has expressed their concern over their failure to keep clean the compound citing low daily revenue which his union currently gets is not enough to incur all the overhead expenses required after being calculated by the Ilala municipal council who scoops a lion share of the daily collections. He says their collections are counted from the number of cattle which are being slaughtered per day, which according to him range between 200 and 250. Each cattle is charged with Tsh. 4,000 and out of this his union earns Tsh. 1,200 only as calculated per every head of cattle. This is approximately 20 percent of the total revenue. With these charges therefore, his union earns Tsh. 7.2 million per month, the amount which he says is not sufficient to cater for the entire needs within the abattoir. This has been existing for the last four years now_, he said in great dismay adding that, the municipal council has refused to increase the charge rates despite of their request to do so as they could be able to get enough money in order to cater for other basic operational demand in the abattoir. He clarified that, apart from looking at the general cleanliness of the compound, his union has to cover other expenses such as payments of the basic utilities such as water supplies, electricity and pay for security workers and people whom they hire to collect the filth. According to him, his organization has tried in vain to let the government through Ilala municipal council to increase its current revenue status saying that the money which is currently paid to them is low and not enough to overcome all the expenses required to be incurred as operational costs in their abattoir. The Ukonga abattoir is the oldest among the total four slaughter houses found in the city of Dar es Salaam. It has a large compound with three slaughter houses which are located within a short walking distance of about 30 meters away. They have old dilapidated roofing constructed in early 1970s.