Lagos Seals Coca-Cola, Guinness, FrieslandCampina

Three companies have been sealed by the Lagos State Water Regulatory Commission for extracting large quantities of groundwater for commercial purposes without proper authorisation and compliance with regulations.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that, the three companies are Nigerian Bottling Company, producers of Coca-Cola, FrieslandCampina, makers of Peak Milk and Guinness Nigeria Plc.

The Director, Technical Services, LASWARCO, Mr Olowu Babatunde, said this during an enforcement on Tuesday in Lagos.

Babatunde said that LASWARCO had been engaging with these companies for over seven years to encourage compliance but efforts have been met with limited success.

“We operate a law that empowers us to regulate most of these heavy abstractors in Lagos State.

“Abstractors are individuals or entities that extract large quantities of groundwater for commercial purposes.

“So, these companies that we have sealed, basically three of them – Coca-Cola, FreislandCampina and Guinness, abstract water in large quantities.

“And we have been engaging them over time. At least, I have been here for more than seven years now. We’ve been engaging these companies for more than seven years now.

“Some, either they do partial compliance, or some don’t comply at all. So, now that we started implementation of our regulation, we now compel them to fulfill all their regulatory demands,” he said.