By Frank Mugabi

JINJA-based Leather Industries of Uganda has stopped operations after being disconnected from public sewer lines. The firm is accused of discharging smelly liquid waste, causing a stench in Jinja town.

The factory has, since, its establishment in the 1976, been discharging its primary treated effluent through the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) sewer lines.

The waste is then deposited at the NWSC lagoons on the shores of Lake Victoria for secondary treatment.

Although Leather Industries of Uganda is not the only tannery in the area, fingers have been pointed at it as the source of the smelly discharge.

NWSC blocked the sewer lines connecting to the factory last month after a lot of pressure from local politicians and other authorities.

The move has, however, raised more questions than answers as the offensive stench still hangs over the town two weeks after the tannery was forced to stop operations.

This left over 300 workers stranded. Many of them have worked with the company for over 30 years, and are helpless following the sudden factory closure.

“I have been here for 38 years, now they are telling me to go home. How am I going to sustain my family? We have been at this factory for this long, but never did we produce such a smell. There should be proper investigation before such decisions are taken,” Dravile Stephen, from Arua, said.

In an August 25 letter to the NWSC executive director, the Uganda Manufacturers Association executive director, Sebaggala Kigozi, expressed concern that the sewer disconnection had been done without fully ascertaining the actual cause of the stench.

“As one of the largest tanneries in Uganda, with comprehensive facilities to process raw hides and skins to finished products, and a big workforce, this company needs our support to avert huge market losses,” Kigozi wrote.

He noted that apart from leading to an immediate loss of sh200m in raw hides and skins, the factory’s sudden forced closure would lead to a devastating cancellation of contracts with clients in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Leather Industries acquired the tannery from the Government in 2005 through the Divestiture and Reform Implementation Committee.

According to the terms of the deal, the firm was limited to primary treatment of the effluent as per the National Environmental Statute 1995.

Kigozi explained that the Government and Jinja Municipal Council were the ones responsible for the secondary treatment of the effluent.

Leather Industries has also been paying NWSC sh8m monthly to cover the secondary treatment costs, he added.

Deogratius Majwega, the tannery effluent and environmental officer, said the closure of the industry was unfair.
He said they were treating their effluent according to the primary treatment guidelines.

Justus Mike Ochom, a government analyst, the okayed the company’s primary effluent treatment.

The environment watchdog, NEMA, however, agrees that the firm has a problem. Jeniffer Kutesakwe, a NEMA inspector, said Leather Industries has the worst way of treating effluent.

“We gave one month (which has already expired) and a last warning to put up an appropriate treatment plant and disposal unit for the pieces of meat and fur they scrap from skins.”

Kutesakwe advised the company to engage specialists to design for them the appropriate waste treatment plant and disposal unit like other factories have done.