adminNgoni Dapira Business Correspondent
BEVERAGEs firm Mutare Bottling Company on Tuesday commissioned a new $60 000 effluent pre-treatment plant expected to curb environmental pollution in line with the country’s effluent and solid waste disposal regulations.The effluent pre-treatment plant reduces the company’s solid waste and water pollution on-site before discharge into the city council’s main sewer system.
MBC managing director Mr Allen Lang said the initiative showed their dedicated environmental stewardship to international conventions and local statutes regardless of the current liquidity constraints in the country.
“Environmental stewardship is a guiding principle in our determination to be the best corporate citizens that we can be as a company. We always aim to be pacesetters as Mutare Bottling Company in everything we do.
“In that regard, as part of our waste reduction initiative we identified our main internal waste streams which are subjected to on-site separation after which the separated waste is sent for recycling . . .
“So this effluent pre-treatment plant basically converts effluent of pH 11 (very alkaline) containing suspended solids to effluent of pH6 to 9, (close to pure water pH7), with minimal suspended solids, which consequently reduces the load on downstream city council-owned treatment facilities,” said Mr Lang.
Environmental Management Agency Manicaland province manager Mr Kingston Chitotombe said sustainable economic development was imperative in the present-day highly industrialised world.
“Whatever we do as industry or citizens we should do it in a way that does not deplete the environment, which is what sustainable development entails in a nutshell.
“We are proud to note that Mutare Bottling Company places great importance on environmental issues and that they have taken the lead in establishing routines and initiatives to improve the quality of waste water generated from its operations, of which the installation of a pre-treatment plant is one such way,” said Mr Chitotombe.
He added that over the years there have been giant steps by industry on voluntary waste management initiatives to curb pollution and MBC had joined the bandwagon.
Mr Chitotombe said in Zimbabwe, the pollution of water sources has over the years led to the death of over 4 000 people from cholera and left over 100 000 people sick from water-borne diseases.
MBC is one of the few remaining companies in Manicaland still viably operating.
Last year in February it commissioned a new $17 million automated bottling plant to boost productivity by as much as 400 percent.
In October the firm unveiled new state-of-the-art vending equipment valued at $111 000, which were expected to benefit 160 new Coca-Cola vendors in Manicaland, including retrenched employees after the automation.
During the tour of the plant, MBC production manager Mr Leonard Saurombe said the automation of the plant was cost-effective and had cut its utility expenses intensely.
He said automated bottling plant reduced its water usage within the plant operations by 33 percent in the past year.
The new-line plant produces 15 000 1-litre bottles per hour and 30 000, 300ml bottles per hour.
MBC, which holds the Coca-cola franchise for the Manicaland region, is 63 percent owned by telecommunications giant Econet Wireless Zimbabwe.
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