Jinja hides factory pours cancerous waste in L. Victoria

trueLake Victoria is under threat, and the very people this natural resource is supposed to serve are the ones threatening its existence. Until World Environment Day on June 5, in a campaign, Save Lake Victoria, Vision Group media platforms will run investigative stories and commentaries highlighting the irresponsible human activities threatening the world's second largest fresh water lake. Today, we bring you the story of a skin factory in Jinja that is poisoning residents drinking the water from a part of the lake where the industry pours its chemical waste.

By Gerald Tenywa

He is one of the residents who mourned the death of industries in Jinja Municipal Council about three decades ago. So, when a skin and hides factory, Skyfat Tannery Company, was set up six years ago, Robert Mugoya, a fisherman in Jinja, thought he would reap from the employment that would help bring back the glory days.

Today, Mugoya is bitter as the investors who promised heaven on earth, have become prophets of doom.

According to Mugoya, who is backed by a report from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Skyfat is contaminating water in the nearby Lake Victoria, which is also a source of fish.

“We no longer fetch water for drinking from the lake,” Mugoya says, adding that they have to walk about half a kilometre to get piped water, which costs sh100 for a 20-litre jerrycan. “It is costly to small income earners who use up to 10 jerrycans a day.”

In some cases, when there is no money in the house, Mugoya says they use water from the lake for bathing, but it causes a burning sensation on the skin. Even people who go to harvest papyrus for thatching or making mats and those who cut trees for building along the lake shores are exposed to pollution.

“The water in the swampy edges of the lake also has a similar effect on the skin,” he says. “People were safer before the establishment of their factory in this place.

“Fish has also run away from the bay where they release the waste. We used to catch a lot of fish in this bay, but it disappeared with the coming of the factory,” Mugoya adds.

Waste linked to cancer

According to toxicologists, a chemical known as chromium used in the processing of skins and hides causes cancer. This chemical, according to a report compiled by NEMA after inspection, ends up in the part of Lake Victoria behind the factory.

“People drinking water from this part of the lake or eating fish are being exposed to slow poisoning,” Dr. Aryamanya Mugisha, the former executive director of NEMA, says.

Chromium is a heavy metal that causes cancer.

“It is extremely dangerous and it is a terrible thing that it is still getting into the lake. It accumulates in the fish fatty tissues and people eating this fish are eating poison,” Mugisha says.

Sugar-coated poison

According to dealers in skins and hides, Skyfat offers sh2,500 for a hide, which is the best price in Uganda and the neighbouring countries of Kenya and Rwanda.

Moses Kalule, a dealer in skins, says traders in Uganda and the region, prefer selling to Skyfat, but the company is not returning the favour to the people or the environment that feeds them and their cattle to help the business thrive.

Charles Wetaka, a water vendor at the railway quarters, says the smell from the factory causes a lot of discomfort and loss of appetite.

“I did not know that bad smell could unsettle people until this factory opened in our neighbourhood. People lose appetite and sometimes it causes headache,” Wetaka says.

The Government, according to Asiimwe, should help to shield people and the environment against exploitation if poverty reduction is to make sense to the workers.

“People who are being glorified as investors do not care about the residents or the environment and they are going to leave the country with a big disease burden,” Asiimwe says.

Government officials turn blind eye

Six years ago, according to Mugisha, Skyfat promised to rectify the way they were disposing of the chromium.

true“Pollution started long ago,” Mugisha says, adding that Skyfat has not done what it promised to do. “I closed this factory until they made some improvement,” Mugisha says.

Two weeks ago, Sunday Vision discovered that the company was still polluting the lake.

“Where have you been. We have been suffering because of this factory?” Stella Akipa, a local resident, asked.

In a report by NEMA, dated September 7, 2012, NEMA faulted Skyfat on a number of things, among them lack of a waste treatment plant.

“There were cracks and chrome in the settlement tank and the drying beds, leading to pollution,” stated the report.

The report added: “Results of the laboratory analysis carried out on the sample obtained from the facilities discharge point do not meet the required standard for discharge of wastewater into land and water bodies.”

NEMA’s team also encountered large quantities of waste chrome sludge with no clear disposal methods for the waste.

Another inspection team in December tested waste water from the factory and discovered that the company is still polluting the lake.

“As long as Skyfat operates without a properly constructed waste treatment plant, they will continue polluting,” says a source within NEMA.

Dr. Tom Okurut, the executive director of NEMA, says they had gone a long way in solving the problem. “Skyfat has invested heavily in a waste treatment plant,” Okurut says, adding that there is a time frame to ensure that all the waste is contained.

Chris Isingoma, the environment officer for Skyfat, says: “Pollution is now low. We are trying our best to bring it down. When NEMA comes, we negotiate and agree on how to reduce.”

A ground assessment shows workers loading foul smelling chemicals from the lagoons on two trucks, which they were pouring between the premises, railway quarters and a lakeshore wetland.

Asked about this waste, Isingoma says: “The waste contains chrome and salt, which we are drying for export to South Africa for recycling into pharmaceutical products.”

He adds: “The waste is also a source of organic manure. Skyfat is undertaking research with Kyambogo and Makerere universities in order to reduce waste.”

Nearby, fishmongers were cleaning up emaciated fish from the bay. The Sunday Vision writer thought probably it was immature fish. The owner was going to fry them for sale in Jinja Municipality.

Who cares about what food vendors are selling to the public or what people eat? Who is going to clean up the chromium in the wetland between Skyfat and the lake?

“The wetland encroachers are not supposed to be there. We have evicted them after creating awareness about the dangers of the pollution, but they came back. What do you want us to do?” a source told Sunday Vision.