Stakeholders in environmental services, as well as community leaders in Kano, have accused the National Environmental Standards and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA), of abetting the continuous industrial pollution in the state.

Citing “inexcusable negligence of its responsibility, the stakeholders accused NESREA of compromising on its primary assignment by failing to respond decisively to reported cases of illicit discharge of toxic waste by tannery companies.

The stakeholders bemoaned their lot yesterday at the first town hall meeting the agency organised for stakeholders and owners of facilities in the state. They said uncontrolled activities of tanneries contaminate the air and inflict health hazard in their immediate communities.

Speaking at the occasion one of the community leaders, Alhaji Abdulmaliq Haruna, lamented that residents of Sabuwargandu, Gidan Maza and Tukuntawa communities all in Kumbotso local government area, have suffered untold health challenges as a result of industrial wastes being discharged through a drainage channeled that empties into the communities.

“We have reported the development to NESREA on several occasions, but surprisingly they did nothing. They tanners are fond of polluting our environment, especially in the middle of the night when they mostly perpetrate their evil acts. They will just release the dirty water and everywhere will start smelling bad,” Haruna said.

Also, a member of a non-governmental Organisation on environment, Mr. Toye Abdulmajib, urged NESREA to refocus attention from revenue generation to enforcement and regulation, stressing that the tanners may need to be compelled to do the needful through sanctions and other disciplinary actions.

However, the Director General of NESREA, Lawrence Anukam, disclosed that the agency shut down seven tanneries in the last six months for failing to meeting the require standard.

Although the DG refused to mention identities of the affected tanneries, he explained that the facilities were operating without primary treatment plants to treat their toxic waste according to global requirement.

•Text courtesy of The Guardian. Photo shows NESREA DG, Dr. Lawrence Anukam.

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