The National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) has issued a seven day notice to a Naivasha based flower farm to address the issue of effluent discharge or face legal action.
The authority has accused the Gorge farm which is owned by Veg-Pro Company of discharging effluents from its waste treatment plant into the environment.
The farm that is located next to Lake Naivasha has been served through its Manager, Dharma Sharma with details emerging that it did not have an effluent discharge license.
In an order signed by NEMA officer in Naivasha, Jessica Kahura, the farm was directed to apply for the discharge license within seven days.
The order indicated that samples taken from the effluents indicated that the chemicals level in the runoffs was beyond the recommended standards set by the environmental body.
The notice directed the farm to indicate the necessary remedial measures it would take to address the effluents and apply for a compositing license from the authority within seven days.
Contacted for comment, a senior manager from the farm who declined to be named said that they had already applied for the effluent discharge license.
The NEMA notice comes at a time when water levels in the lake have dropped alarmingly amid an increase in cases of pollution from nearby informal settlements and farms surrounding the lake.
The drop in the levels is being attributed to the current harsh weather condition which has seen rivers flowing into the lake dry up pushing up demand for water among consumers in the area.
The Chairman Lake Naivasha Water Users Association, Enock Kiminta claimed massive abstraction of water from the tributary rivers of the lake were to blame for the drop
in water levels, citing River Turasha which was the main tributary as having dried up completely.
Kiminta identified other rivers that had dried up as Gilgil, Karati and Njoro while River Malewa which was the main source of water for Lake Naivasha was at its lowest levels.
By Esther Mwangi/Hannah Wambui
