The National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) has suspended the operations of Nyanza Textile Industries Limited (NYTIL) in Jinja over poor disposal of liquid waste which is overflowing into a water drainage channel that feeds into the River Nile.
According to the statement issued by NEMA on Thursday morning, the suspension followed an inspection of the facility in Jinja, after public outcry on social media over alleged contamination of River Nile by the facility.
“A team of environmental inspectors was dispatched to the site on January 5, 2022 and discovered that there was a blockage at the facility’s Effluent Treatment Plant that caused industrial waste water to overflow into a storm water drainage channel and subsequently into River Nile. We have picked samples from the river for laboratory analysis to inform the way forward,” reads part of the statement.
NEMA suspended all activities at NYTIL that generate liquid industrial waste until an effective Effluent Treatment Plant has been designed and operationalized to handle the waste, to the satisfaction of NEMA.
“This is in line with the provisions of the National Environment Act No. 5, 2019 and the National Environment (Standards for Discharge of Effluent into Water or Land) Regulations, 2020.”
According to NEMA, unregulated discharge of industrial waste water is a public health hazard and has deleterious impacts on the environment including; loss of aquatic biodiversity, contamination of food chains, compromising the quality of usable water especially for downstream users.
The public has been further urged to continue being vigilant and reporting all environmental breaches and incidents within their communities to promote sustainable socio-economic transformation of the country.
