The Nigerian Bottling Company (the company that makes Coca-Cola), FrieslandCampina (the company that makes Peak Milk), and Guinness Nigeria Plc have had their facilities closed by the Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission (LASWARCO) due to illegal groundwater extraction.
LASWARCO’s Director of Technical Services, Olowu Babatunde, said the commission had been working with these companies for more than seven years to make sure they were following state laws, but the efforts had not produced much.
LASWARCO’s intensified efforts to fully apply its regulatory framework and make sure abstractors follow environmental standards include the enforcement action.
Land subsidence and groundwater contamination are two major environmental effects of uncontrolled groundwater extraction.
LASWARCO is authorised by the Environmental Management Protection Law of 2017 to control groundwater operations and enforce sanctions for unapproved abstraction.
A 75 per cent groundwater abstraction fee waiver was introduced by the government in 2020, however many organisations did not take advantage of the opportunity.
Consequently, LASWARCO has been compelled to initiate enforcement action against noncompliant individuals.
