Firm advocates efficient water management, usage

Nigerian Bottling Company Limited has restated its commitment to intensifying efforts at ensuring safe water management practices as part of its contribution to the Sustainable Development Goal, which highlights the needs to make water accessible for all by 2030.

The company said this at the 2019 World Water Day as it simultaneously held activities in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja to commemorate the day.

According to the company’s Public Affairs and Communications Director, Ekuma Eze, the annual United Nation’s World Water Day, presents a platform which NBC utilizes for the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goal 6, ‘Water for all by 2030’, by promoting discourse and awareness around safe water practices and other water sustainability initiatives.

Eze said, “Nigerian Bottling Company considers such a platform as an opportunity to advocate for the sustainable use of water while also helping communities in need of water interventions to ensure that when it comes to safe water, truly no one is left behind.”

The celebration in Lagos had in attendance the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of the Environment, Bamgboye Abiodun; Executive Secretary, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Oluchi Odimuko; Ikeja Plant Manager, Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Limited, Aderemi Adewoye; Assistant Director, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), Aghosa Anikwe and Chief Executive Officer, Lagos Water Corporation, Muminu Badmus and secondary school students from Agidingbi Grammar School and Government Technical College, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos. Following stakeholder discussions, the students were taken round on a special tour of the NBC Ikeja plant’s effluent Water Treatment Plant.

Badmus said Lagos Water Corporation plans to increase the state’s water production capacity to 492 million gallons per day by year 2023 to close the water demand gap significantly. He explained that LWC has also widened its database to effectively supply water to more people in Lagos, deploying water meters to properties across the state, such that consumers can now pay for the exact amount of water they consume.

Badmus therefore called for a multi-sectoral approach to tackling the challenges of access to fresh and portable water for Nigerians with special focus on the importance of freshwater and advocating for sustainable management of freshwater resources.

Also, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of the Environment, Mr. Bamgboye Abiodun, commended NBC’s commitment to making water accessible not only for their operations but for the communities around them through their water management processes.

Public Affairs Manager, Lagos/West, NBC, Ifeoma Okoye, explained that NBC’s efforts are in line with Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company’s 2025 sustainability commitments, stating, “All NBC plants in Nigeria now boast of effluent treatment facilities.”