Rawalpindi: Motorboats banned in Rawal Lake

[Naveed Yaseen]

Ministry of Environment has imposed a ban on motor boating in the Rawal Lake with immediate effect, says a press release.

Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) has issued an Environmental Protection Order (EPO) in this regard to Capital Development Authority (CDA) asked it to suspend motor boating in Rawal Lake.

This is based on the fact that Rawal Lake is the major source of drinking water for Rawalpindi and motorboats are one of the major source of water pollution due to discharge of oil and grease from the boat engines. Apart from this the constant churning of lake water increases its turbidity, thus it increases the water treatment cost before supplying it for drinking purposes.

The Rawal Lake water contamination remained an issue of prime importance, for this purpose a high powered Rawal Lake Catchments Monitoring Committee (RLCMC) was constituted under the chairmanship of the secretary Ministry of Interior, with representatives of key stakeholders including Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), Water & Sanitation Authority (Wasa), Pak-EPA, CDA, Small Dam Organisation (SDO) and others.

This committee imposed complete ban on motorised boats operating at Rawal Lake in its meeting held on 7th July 2004, yet this ban became ineffective with the passage of time. Presently there are around 24 motorised boats in operation at the Rawal Lake. On inquiry the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) informed Pak-EPA that they have allowed only one paddled boat at the lake.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=161184