Victoria Treasures Limited, a new fish farming and exporting company based in Entebbe, says the Ministry of Water and Environment has allowed them to continue with their operations after proving that they are operating within the law.
In an interview on Friday, Mr Rogers Matsiko, the quality assurance manager at the factory, said the Ministry of Water and Environment reopened the factory after proving that the factory is not dumping waste and polluting Lake Victoria, as it was alleged by the sections of the public; after it presented all the documentation showing how the factory is complying with all the environmental safety guidelines.
“Officials from NEMA and the Ministry of Water and Environment visited this place and the concern from the department of Wetland protection was that we were dumping waste in the lake. They asked for documentation. Those we had, we showed them. According to the commissioner, if some of the documents were not there and then, he was closing us,” he said.
Mr Matsiko explained that when they secured the NEMA certificate to begin operations in 2019, they were required to conduct an environmental audit after one year but because of Covid-19, the opening of the factory was delayed until August 2021.
When they started operations, they presented evidence that they were operational for one year and secured all the relevant permits such as water extraction and discharge permits allowing them to start trying production, but when the ministry officials visited the area, the documents were in soft copies only which the officials never wanted.
Wouter Van Vliet, a consultant working with Larive International, a company contracted by European Union and Food Agriculture Organization to carry out a needs assessment for all companies involved in cage fish farming on Lake Victoria inspecting the Fish cages of Victoria Treasures on Friday.
When they were tasked to produce test results of the quality for water they are throwing back into the lake, the National water quality reference Laboratory in Entebbe had not released the results from the samples that had been submitted to them, blaming the laboratory for a slow process over which they lacked control.
When asked to explain why they closed the factory after they had produced the necessary documentation, Mr Joseph Ongol, the assistant commissioner in charge of policy and enforcement at the ministry of water and environment said, when he made the inspection of the factory in August, he found that it is duly registered but he closed it because they lacked the physical documents that they consider pertinent to their operations.
“When we go for inspections we want to see whether they are complying with conditions we gave them. These documents have conditions which guide the company on how they should operate within the lake,” he said.
Mr Ongol explained that they need a permit allowing them to extract water from Lake Victoria and also a permit allowing them to discharge back the water into the lake, an environmental impact assessment, a permit allowing them to carry out fish processing within the Lake Victoria Protection zone.
Asked if they had these and if at all the factory was polluting the lake, he said when they produced the documentation, the ministry reopened the factory because it was found out to be complying with all the guidelines.
Last month, the ministry of water and environment closed the Entebbe-based factory after it was accused of polluting Lake Victoria and dumping industrial waste into the lake. Asked what could have caused the allegations, Altaf Hirani, the managing director said he could not rule out his competitors fabricating the accusations since theirs is the newest in the business.
“As a business which farms its own fish, there is no way any sane investor can pollute the most conducive environment for farming his own fish for export because he would be killing his own investment. Fish especially the Tilapia which is our premium product is too sensitive to water quality, temperature, and the kind of food it eats which would stunt it affecting our own market,” he said.
