FCTA Denies Waste Treatment Plant Shutdown

Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) through the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has said that the Abuja Waste Treatment Plant, in Wupa District remains fully functional and well maintained for optimal treatment of sewage from phases I, II, III, and part of phase IV of the FCT.

AEPB director, Engr. Osi Briamah made this assertion, in the wake of a news report that there is a threat of epidemic outbreak and exposure of FCT residents to sewage toxins, due to the purported shutdown of the plant, which is the biggest in the FCT for six months.

Briamah, who described the report as untrue, said it would be the height of irresponsibility to shut down such critical infrastructure for such a period.

He added that there was no discharge of raw sewage into the Wupa River Basin, as it is only treated effluent, which meets both international and Nigerian regulations for discharge of treated sewage water, which is eco-friendly.

According to him, there was no time that the plant was shut down for six months, saying that even when they service the plant they have two numbers of 15,000 kilowatts generators working and that occasionally they shut down one for maintenance purposes.

“So, each work for 500 hours, while we shut down the service, then the other comes into commission- working alternately. Maybe this is why somebody said that during maintenance the plant was shut down, but never a time it was shut down for six months,” he stressed.