Sustainable Industrial WW Sludge Management at the Ethiopian Industrial Parks

Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister has announced his willingness to privatize government-owned assets and to liberalize the Ethiopian economy. This creates a momentum that is favorable for private initiatives such as industrial parks and export industries. And it could create a favorable enabling environment for PPP projects in the industrial parks. The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) launched the Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Strategy in 2011, followed by the Second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II, 2015/2016 – 2019/20), with the overall ambition of becoming a lower middle-income country by 2025. Whilst the economy has historically been dominated by the agricultural sector, the GTP II puts increasing importance on the development of the industrial sector in the country, particularly light manufacturing, and accordingly, the industrial sector’s contribution to GDP is expected to rise from the current 13% to about 20% by 2020.  GGGI had been requested by the CEO of the Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) to assist in development of industrial wastewater sludge management strategy and viable business model for reuse. This project will focus on the four industrial parks that are currently operational (namely, Hawassa, Bole Lemi – in the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Kombolcha, and Mekelle). And there is a possibility of scaling it up to the other parks that will be commissioned soon. All four industrial parks are fitted with wastewater treatment plants to treat industrial wastewater and sewage generated from the industrial parks. Whilst the Hawassa Industrial Park is fitted with a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) system, with which most of wastewater can be treated and reused within the industrial park, thus increasing water efficiency, the other three parks are fitted with conventional treatment plants, which treat and discharge the wastewater to the surrounding environment. Especially, the Hawassa Industrial Park is considered as the country’s first eco-industrial park as its energy supply comes from hydroelectric power. However, whilst all of the four operational industrial parks are equipped with wastewater treatment plants, none of the industrial parks have a sustainable way of disposing of the sludge and salts and are being stored in haphazard manner in the parks’ premises .