The PhD research of Mr. Thobias Bigambo (member of the PROVIDE program) received a funding of EUR 13,000 from the foundation Aqua for All for the construction of a sanitary biogas plant at Mbezi High school in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

This amount will be used for the construction of toilet units and a 12m3 anaerobic digester. The related research will be carried out with the support of the PROVIDE project and the Department of Environmental Laboratory Science and Technology under the School of Environmental Science and Technology, at Ardhi University (ARU). This anaerobic digestion and sludge sanitation research will be carried out together with the operation and maintenance of the biogas unit. Supervision for these activities will remain in the hands of the regular supervisors Dr. Grietje Zeeman (Wageningen University) and Dr. Shaaban Mgana (ARU), and with promoter Prof. Jules van Lier (Technical University Delft).

The key motivation for this project is that the boarding secondary schools and other public institutions will acquire technological know how on resource recovery through sanitation in the context of project development, sanitation block management and by products development and recovery such as biogas and nutrients for beneficial uses. It is expected that the local community in the neighborhood will also have the opportunity of acquiring the pertinent skills. The students and local communities will finally be served with improved sanitary services. The operational experience of the reactor will be used in up-scaling the sanitary biogas reactor in the future.