The National Environment Management Authority (Nema) yesterday closed down four more factories in an ongoing crackdown on firms discharging effluents that lack water quality standards.
Nema acting director-general Mamo Boru Mamo said the crackdown would intensify this week with more facilities staring at closure for not having functioning pre-treatment plants.
Yesterday, the wrath of the environmental regulator fell on Apex Coating East Africa, Thorlite Kenya, Modern Lithography, and Kamongo.
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“This exercise will continue along Nairobi river tomorrow (today),” he told People Daily by phone yesterday.
Last week, Nema accused Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC), the City-County Government and Export Processing Zone (EPZ) of being the top polluters of the river for supervising the discharge of raw waste to the river.
During a press conference at Nema headquarters, Mamo said to cure the pollution challenges facing the city, especially the Nairobi River and its tributaries, root causes must be addressed first.
“Our officers have established that there are 122 discharge points that have been discharging the raw sewer into the river. So to address these challenges we must cure the root cause which is making those who are responsible for the pollution accountable,” he said.
Mamo said in the last three months since the authority launched 100 days rapid results initiative, Nema has been able to identify 122 raw effluent discharge points; issued 37 restoration orders, closed 48 facilities, and made around 30 arrests.
“We have also marked 75 illegal structures that are on riparian land, and out of this, 22 have been demolished, while the owners of 10 of them, have voluntarily removed them,” he added.
Discharge effluent
Nema is currently pursuing NCWSC acting managing director Nahashon Muguna accusing him of allowing the company to discharge raw effluent to the river. Mamo also said Nema would go for Nairobi Governor, Mike Sonko for a similar charge.
However, on Sunday night during K24 TV’s PunchLine talk show, Sonko defended himself saying the pollution has been there for years, and he cannot be blamed for it.
“The problem of Nairobi River has been there for years and not Sonko’s. The pollution of the river can be traced to the growth of slums where about 70 per cent of Kenyans live. The people living in these slums are not connected to toilets and prefer hand portable toilets that they dispose of in the river,” he said.
The Governor said Nema’s move to arrest him and NWCSC acting managing director means that all the slums are brought down, which is impossible.
“Cleaning of the river requires permanent solutions such as slum upgrading programmes. Such a plan would involve putting up modern housing that’s connected with all the amenities such as toilets, piped water and road infrastructure to facilitate mobility during clean up exercises and waste management disposal facilities,” he argued.
Sonko said that the county already has a canalisation of Nairobi River meant to protect residents from exposure to the poisonous river.
