The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has applauded the move by Mutare Bottling Company (MBC) to stop discharging effluent with a high pH from its premise which was outside the recommended level.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
MBC successfully installed an effluent pre-treatment plant that will enable the waste water to be discharged into the main sewer for Mutare City with the recommended pH of 6-9 and not the harmful one of 11 which the organisation used to discharge.
The $60 000 effluent pre-treatment plant is also equipped with screening and settling sections which remove all suspended solids such as plastics, bottles and bottle tops to avoid discharging them together with water.
“We are very proud to note that Mutare Bottling Company places great importance on environmental issues and that they have taken the lead in establishing routines and initiatives to improve the quality of waste water generated in their operations, the installation of pre-treatment plant being one of them,” said EMA Manicaland provincial manager Kingstone Chitotombe at the commissioning of the plant on Tuesday.
Chitotombe said it was regrettable that over the last decade, Zimbabwe had seen tremendous depreciation of the water quality in most areas.
“Health consequences arising from water pollution impede economic and social development from which arises the need for all of us to be part of efforts to conserve and protect this very valuable resource,” he said.
Chitotombe said water pollution has wreaked havoc in the country at a time when there was an outbreak of cholera and legislation alone could not curb water pollution, urging corporations and private business partners to take a leading role in implementing sound environmental initiatives.
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MBC managing director Allan Lang said the company was committed to prioritising environmental issues.
“Environmental stewardship is the guiding principle in our determination to be the best corporate citizens that we can be as a company,” he said. “It is also a key component of our business strategy and part of our value chain efficiency. In addition to improving the quality of our waste, we are very conscious of conserving the water resource available to us.”
Lang said the company managed to upgrade its processing equipment in an effort to be more water-efficient and through that investment, reduced water usage within its operations by 33% in the past year.
After processing the water for the whole week, solids will be removed from the tanks and deposited as solid waste.
