Factory sealed over contamination of Kano farms, river

The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) has sealed a factory, Wanmei Company, at the Challawa Industrial Area of Kano State for contaminating farms and River Challawa with untreated wastewater.

It was gathered that the agency received a report against Wanmei for continuous non-compliance with the provisions of extant laws, standards, regulations and guidelines in order to prevent pollution of the environment which prompted the Director General of the agency, Prof Aliyu Jauro, to give a marching order to the North West Zonal office in Kano to seal the company.

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Speaking to journalists after the exercise, the Zonal Director, Mudasir O. Raheem, said the company generated wastewater during its production process and yet did not have an effluent treatment plant to treat the wastewater to permissible standards before discharging into the environment.

He said, “Sometime in May last year, there was a public complaint against the company about the discharge of contaminated water and air pollution. ‘’At that time, our officers investigated the complaint and proffered solutions to the company, among which was to remediate the polluted sites and ensure treatment of their wastewater before discharging.

“Unfortunately, another complaint surfaced against the company. This time around, instead of treating their wastewater before discharging, they carried the water in a tanker and discharged it into farms and River Challawa without treatment. Our officers investigated the recent complaint and they confirmed that the facility does not still have an effluent treatment plant and therefore does not treat the wastewater. The wastewater was analysed on the spot during the investigation and found to have a pH of 4.5; which means it is acidic, and also has high salinity and turbidity, among others, which does not conform to the regulatory standards.”