Assessment of tannery effluent handling at selected tanneries in Jinja district

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of tannery effluent to the environment and human health at selected tanneries in Jinja District, to determine strategies for handling of tannery effluent. The research was descriptive in nature involving quantitative and qualitative methods which were administered through questionnaires. Random sampling method was used to select the respondents in the study. The sample size was 3 tanning Industries were the total sample comprised of 23 respondents of all the managers and employees of the selected tanneries. Primary data was obtained from the library materials, textbooks, internet and journals. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS and frequency distribution tables. Results showed that dizziness is the strongest evidence for the effect of effluent to people with 69.6% followed by headache contributing 13% and then itching with 8.7%. On the effects on environment bad smell from effluents contributed to 82.6% followed by poor quality plants with 13% and then death of animals with 4.3%. The research showed that the strategies put during tannery effluent handling were fair overall among the respondents. It was recommended that there should be increase in neutralising the chemicals as well as implementing more mechanical means of handling wastes to avoid contact with the workers.