Nytil clears air on River Nile pollution reports

Textile company, Southern Range Nyanza Limited also known as Nytil has admitted there was an “accidental overflow” into River Nile leading to pollution into the river.

One Eng.Ivan Karuru, a social media user on Tuesday accused the company of discharging hazardous waste into Lake Victoria before asking National Environmental Management Authority(NEMA) to intervene.

However, in a statement released on Wednesday, Nytil General Manager, Viny Kumar admitted the overflow but said efforts are on to rectify the problem.

“It has since been established that the effluent treatment infrastructure suffered a breakdown resulting in the accidental overflow of effluent into the river. Fortunately, the engineering team is already on ground to fix the problem and resolve it with finality,” Kumar said in a statement.

Apologising for the inconvenience that could have been caused, the Nytil General Manager said the company is committed to avoiding a repeat of the same.

Nytil remains committed to sustainable development and will continue working with partners and people of goodwill to protect mother nature. The inconvenience caused by this isolated and unprecedented incident is regretted.”

Earlier, NEMA had noted they had sent a team of inspectors to the site to assess the impact of the overflow.

"We have dispatched a team of inspectors to the site this morning. We shall get samples and do analysis to understand the nature of chemicals and source and then appropriate action will be taken. Thank you again for the alert," NEMA tweeted.

I just can't figure out what Nytil is discharging into River Nile. @nemaug should take interest in this matter. pic.twitter.com/RvTxP3S7lc

— Eng. Karuru Ivan🇺🇬 (@EngKaruru) January 4, 2022