NAMIBIA: Garment unit closure linked to groundwater pollution
BharatTextile.com (subscription), India
WINDHOEK: The Malaysian owned garment factory Ramatex closed its three units due to concerns raised over groundwater pollution. The news that the company had planned to take machinery from the units out of the country, the Namibia Food and Allied Workers Union (NAFAU) held an urgent meeting with the company officials.
After the meeting, Nafau General Secretary Kiros Sackarias said the company had assured the union that they were not planning to shut up shop and withdraw from Namibia. A sudden departure by Ramatex was most recently fuelled in May last year by the company’s failed proposal to Government to buy out the Windhoek factory.
The company has assured us that there would be no loss of jobs,” Sackarias said.
He added that the company attributed the recent closure of its spinning, knitting and dyeing factories to environmental concerns from the City of Windhoek.
The municipality has been monitoring the factory’s impact on groundwater on a three-monthly basis. The City was to start transferring sludge from wastewater ponds at Ramatex to the Kupferberg dumpsite outside Windhoek, at the company’s expense. The Government had made funds available for the rehabilitation of the areas affected by the pollution.
About 240 workers had been affected by the closure of the three departments. These workers were all moved to the sewing department in the company’s Flamingo Garments factory.
A meeting is scheduled between the company and the Ministry in Malaysia later this week, the Trade Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Andrew Ndishishi, said.
