The National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) has halted all activities that generate industrial waste water at textile company, Southern Range Nyanza Limited, also known as Nytil in Njeru Municipality in Buikwe District, for discharging waste into River Nile.

The suspension followed social media uproar after pictures of polluted water in the Nile went viral on Wednesday.

In a statement, NEMA said all activities at the facility had been halted to prevent further pollution.

"In order to prevent further pollution of the river, all activities at Nytil that generate industrial waste water have been suspended by NEMA until effective effluent treatment plant has been designed and operationalized to handle all the effluent generated at the facility, to the satisfaction of NEMA," the statement reads in part.

In a Wednesday statement, Nytil General Manager, Viny Kumar admitted the overflow but said efforts were underway to rectify the problem.

"It has since been established that the effluent treatment infrastructure suffered a breakdown resulting in the accidental overflow of effluent into the river. Fortunately, the engineering team is already on ground to fix the problem and resolve it with finality," Kumar said in a statement.

Mr John Busiku, the Njeru Municipality senior environment officer said the waste pipe at Nytil is being worked on and added that all factories in the municipality have been encouraged to obtain regulations.

"As I talk now, the pipe is being worked upon and there has been a suspension of discharge because there was a problem with waste discharge. All factories in Njeru Municipality discharge waste into the river but we are encouraging them to obtain relevant regulations or permits of different activities that they are conducting because through regularizing they will get the best advice on how to treat and discharge waste," Mr Busiku said.