Nigeria: Nigerian Breweries Plc rejects government allegation on water pollution

Nigenrian Breweries Plc denied allegations by the Enugu State government, that its Ama Breweries plant was polluting the host community waters and that its (NB) trucks were been parked indiscriminately, thereby causing accidents and loss of lives in the host community, the Nigerian Vanguard announced on September 23.

NB in a statement denying the allegations said, “the allegations against us (NB) are totally untrue; Ama Breweries, a world class brewery with cutting edge technology has one of the most sophisticated effluent disposal plants in the world. The Ama brewery Waste Water Treatment Plant is the most modern in this part of the world. The entire system is buried underground and does not have any link whatsoever with any river running through the town”.

“The brewery was built with full support of the Enugu State government from inception to commission in 2003; The Old Enugu Brewery has since June 2004 stopped production hence cannot have anything to do with effluent discharge. We have commenced dialogue with the Enugu State government to resolve any issues relating to the multimillion investment in Enugu State.

Nigerian Breweries is a socially responsible corporate organisation with a mission to ‘market high quality brands to deliver superior customer satisfaction in an environmentally friendly way’.Our policies have remained consistent with this mission statement over the years”.

According to the statement, “the Umuezeani community, through their youths, decided to impose what they called Development Levy and Drivers Welfare on each truck loading from AMA Brewery. This development started on Friday and led to serious traffic congestion on the road. The immediate effect was delays in deliveries and production stappage on the night shift as the spent grains collector could not be evacuated. The trucks were forced to pay between N1000.00 and N500.00 per trip”.

“The situation continued until Saturday afternoon when there was a respite after the drivers had reportedly agreed to pay N200.00 per loaded long truck and N100.00 for any short truck. Our External Relations Manager spoke with some of the community leaders and officials on this development and the illegality of the action and the effect on our business even as they argued that it was not against NB Plc, but our key transporters”.

“The plan was to take it further on Monday and get a stoppage to the illegal levies. However, by Monday morning, the situation took a different dimension. The entire communities along the 9th Mile axis embarked on a peaceful demonstration with placards, drummers, press crew, etc protesting what they called the degradation of their environment by companies operating in the area.

The demonstrators went from our old Enugu Brewery, through NBC and 7UP to AMA Brewery. Though not violent, they blocked the roads, obstructed traffic and eventually converged at AMA Brewery gate where they prevented exit/entrance from and to the brewery”, the statement said.

According to the statement, “meetings have been held between NB and our host communities where they enumerated their grievances which bothered only on their welfare without any reference to degradation of the environment or water.

I believe we should be concerned why the state government which has always claimed this project as a major dividend ofdemocracy has suddenly become more knowledgeable than officials of the federal ministry of Environment which conducted an inspection at their own invitation”.

“Recently, the Enugu state government, as a reaction to the demonstration by communities against industries operating in the state, through the Commissioner for Environment/Solid Minerals issued a two statement to the press which they singled out Nigerian Breweries for special mention. According to it, the government is not happy with NB Plc for neglecting its directives to channel its effluents properly and reduce the damage to the environment. The statement focused only on NB Plc even when the demonstration was against all companies on the 9th mile axis”, it added.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .