LACK of seriousness on various basic laid down health principles has been termed to be an exacerbating factor which has made owners of the Ukonga abattoir in Ilala district, Dar es Salaam region not to follow the right environmental health principles which are required to be followed in order to keep clean their abattoir compounds, an environmental health officer has observed. Egnat Mlay of the Ilala Municipal council recently said that his office had issued instruction to owners of the abattoir to comply with the basic laid down environmental health conditions a year ago, but seemingly most of the conditions are not yet fulfilled. He said in an exclusive interview that among the most important thing they had ordered them to do was to construct a condemnation pit on which to dispose of all refuse within the compound but to the great dismay, owners do not take actions to abide by such rules. However, he noted that, his office is underway to take appropriate legal actions against the defaulters for their failure to fulfill such conditions as the days which they had issued as the ultimatum to let them rectify the situation has elapsed. According to him, there were about five environmental health conditions imposed with a view to ensure maximum health standards at slaughter houses, and insisted that one of the most important of all was to dig a condemnation pit which has not yet been done. Other conditions he noted were all skinning activities should be done within the slaughter houses, blood drying machine to be installed within the compound, renovation of the dilapidated slaughter houses, and wearing of safety gears such as gloves as stipulated by Tanzania Food and Drug Authority Act of the year 2003. The latter condition is compulsory for all workers who handle foods.
A typical example of the modern abattoir is whereby a slaughtered animal is hanged up when being skinned.
Investigation has found out that, due to lack of a condemnation pit within the abattoir failure by the which was to residents of Markaz area at Ukonga ward in Ilala district, Dar es Salaam region are not living comfortably due to foul smell emanating from the nearest abattoir which has been regularly inconveniencing their lives. Interviewed residents have said that, the persisting situation has been denying them rest mostly during night hours and because of this, have strongly appealed to the government to relocate the abattoir in order to save their lives which they say is in danger of being infected due to environmental air pollution. The abattoir which is among the oldest slaughter houses in the city of Dar es Salaam was established in early 1970s at a time when the area was scarcely populated, but now the area is densely populated with the residential houses built in recent years. Othman Iddi a businessman whose house is closer to the abattoir said that, he is not happy especially during evening hours when the atmosphere is cool and suddenly the air is polluted with a horrible smell coming from the direction of the abattoir which disturbs people. Other residents said, they had long been complaining about the situation to higher authorities and have sent their requests several times through their street leaders and ward secretary for help, but to no avail. Being close to residential houses as such, according to the environmental management regulations its presence is likely to pose serious heath hazards to the people close to it if basic precautionary measures on health care is not taken, says a private Dar based health environmentalist Mr. Cristopher Chiwaya.
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