Daima Dairy shut down over claims of polluting the environment
The National Environmental Management Authority (Nema), has shut down dairy farm giant Daima Dairy over claims of discharging untreated effluents into the Nairobi sewer.
Speaking on Tuesday morning, Acting Director General of Nema, Mamo B Mamo, said they have arrested the firm’s manager and that the facility will remain closed till further notice.
@NemaKenya closes Daima indefinitely, Arrests Cooperation Manager for discharging untreated effluent into Nairobi Sewer that results into pollution of Nairobi River @dailynation @Environment_Ke @TheStarKenya @PeopleDailyKe @citizentvkenya @ntvkenya pic.twitter.com/8Np6MWUcv8
— NEMA Kenya (@NemaKenya) August 27, 2019
Milk, he said, contains a number of elements and if discharged directly without looking at the limits required under the water quality regulations will lead to pollution of these water bodies.
“We have been having this exercise for a while and our team has been working on this. We will continue with this and I want to put all those facilities that are polluting our rivers on notice that Nema is not going to stand and wait for them to pollute our rivers, we will continue with this exercise and ensure that our rivers are clean,” Mamo said.
“As Nema we have been working with these factories and we normally give them time to comply before we come to the issue of closure. When we looked at the Nairobi river ecosystem we identified 122 discharge points, and these are the points we are currently enforcing to ensure that all these factories along the river basin that are discharging waste into our aquatic environment must be shut down,” he added.
An expose carried out by the Daily Nation revealed how Nairobi River, once a source of clean drinking water, has become filled with a cocktail of raw untreated sewage coming from human activities along the river line.