A team made up of representatives from the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and Nigerian Police Force officers on Monday sealed off a Pure Bio-Tech Company Limited facility in Makurdi, the capital of Benue State, for dumping untreated effluent into water bodies and endangering both human life and the environment as well as violating current environmental laws and standards.
Cassava is used as the company’s primary raw material. It is an ethanol-producing facility that falls under the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sector. This wet process of producing ethanol from cassava calls for the establishment of an effective Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP), which would guarantee that waste from these activities is properly treated before being discharged into the environment.
The National Environmental (Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Soap and Detergent Manufacturing Industries) Regulations 2009 S.I. No.36 and the National Environmental (Sanitation and Waste Control) Regulations 2009 S.I. No.28 have been broken, according to NESREA, because the company has failed to install the ETP.
A NESREA-accredited Facility Consultant conducted an Environmental Compliance Monitoring (ECM) in March 2023. According to the Report of the Effluent analyzed by the consultant and submitted to the NESREA Field Office in Makurdi on April 16, 2023, the majority of the parameters analyzed from the effluent were above the NESREA permissible level as specified by the National Environmental (Sanitation and Waste Control) Regulations 2009 S.I N0.28.
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NESREA stated that the facility had earlier been issued notices of compliance concerns to halt production until a functional ETP is fully installed but it failed to comply.
The body then moved in to avoid further endangering of lives of residents who use water from the river for their basic household needs.
In addition to not having an ETP, the facility was also found to be operating without an Environmental Impact Statement and did not complete the process of conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before the commencement of its operation which contravenes the EIA Act CAP. E12 of LFN, 2004.
According to the Director General of NESREA, Prof Aliyu Jauro, compliance with laid down environmental laws is a must for companies operating in the country, adding that the agency is fully determined to ensure that non-compliant facilities are made to face the full wrath of the law.
Story adapted from EnviroNews
