The Lagos State Government has sealed the facilities of three major companies – Nigerian Bottling Company (producers of Coca-Cola), FrieslandCampina (makers of Peak Milk), and Guinness Nigeria Plc – for extracting large quantities of groundwater without proper authorisation.
The Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission (LASWARCO) carried out the enforcement operation, as disclosed by Mr. Olowu Babatunde, Director of Technical Services at LASWARCO, on Tuesday in Lagos, as reported by the News Agency of Nigeria.
Babatunde revealed that LASWARCO had been engaging with these companies for over seven years to ensure compliance with water abstraction regulations, but these efforts had largely been unsuccessful.
“We operate a law that empowers us to regulate most of these heavy abstractors in Lagos State. Abstractors are individuals or entities that extract large quantities of groundwater for commercial purposes.
“So, these companies that we have sealed, basically three of them – Coca-Cola, FreislandCampina and Guinness, abstract water in large quantities.
“And we have been engaging them over time. At least, I have been here for more than seven years now. We’ve been engaging these companies for more than seven years now.
“Some, either they do partial compliance, or some don’t comply at all. So, now that we started implementation of our regulation, we now compel them to fulfill all their regulatory demands,” he said.
The move highlights the commission’s resolve to enforce compliance and address the environmental risks posed by unregulated groundwater abstraction.
More insight
The NAN report highlighted that the enforcement stemmed from a recent briefing by Tokunbo Wahab, Commissioner for the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources.
Wahab emphasized the critical need to regulate groundwater activities to address environmental risks such as land subsidence and groundwater contamination.
- He explained that the Environmental Management Protection Law of 2017 grants LASWARCO the authority to oversee groundwater abstraction and penalize organisations that fail to comply with the regulations.
- In 2020, the Lagos State Government introduced a 75% waiver on groundwater abstraction fees to encourage compliance, but the response from organisations was limited.
- This led LASWARCO to implement enforcement measures, including issuing notices to non-compliant organisations with a 72-hour deadline to meet regulatory requirements. Companies that failed to comply faced penalties, including the sealing of their premises and other legal actions.
Wahab stressed that all efforts at dialogue and collaboration had been exhausted, making enforcement essential to ensure adherence to the law and protect the environment.