Suo moto notice

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

SC orders action against Rawal Lake polluters

* Secretary Cabinet ordered to hold a meeting with relevant authorities today and prepare clean drinking water supply plan for Rawalpindi

By Masood Rehman

ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday directed the federal and the Punjab environmental protection agencies to initiate proceedings against the people who discharge sewage into the Rawal Lake and pollute the drinking water being supplied to the residents of Rawalpindi.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, observed that the environment protection agencies were reluctant to take action against the violators in order to hide their fault and put responsibility on others.

The court ordered the Secretary Cabinet to convene a meeting with Islamabad Chief Commissioner, Rawalpindi WASA managing director, Murree Tehsil Municipal Administrator, Pakistan Environment Protection Agency Pak-EPA director general and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman on Thursday (today) and prepare a joint plan for the supply of purified water to the residents of Rawalpindi.

The CJP said though the environment law was very comprehensive and clear but the officials did not apply it strictly. He said such attitude was definitely tantamount to inefficiency of the environmental agencies. He said if these agencies would have done their job, there was no need to the court to take suo motu notices on such issues on media reports. He said discharge of sewage into the lake could not be tolerated at all.

The court observed that contamination of Rawal Lake water, which was being supplied to residents of Rawalpindi and the cantonment areas had been going on for the last many years.

The court noted that the situation could have been averted had the environment protection agency officials had taken notice of sewerage discharge into the lake earlier and WASA installed a water treatment plant.

Constructed on Korang River in 1960, Rawal Dam is the main source of water to Rawalpindi city and its suburbs. Having a catchment area of 275 sq km, it can store 84,000 acres feet of water in an average rainfall year. Four major and 43 small streams also contribute to the storage.

Rawal Lake is an important artificial fresh water reservoir that provides 23 million gallons of clean drinking water to inhabitants of Rawalpindi city and cantonment areas daily. There are four major streams and 43 small streams contributing to its storage.

The poultry farms and the human settlements, especially huge amount of raw sewage coming from urban settlements, including sewage from Quaid-e-Azam University, Bari Imam, Mallpur, Noor Pur Shahan, Bani Gala, Bhara Kahu, Diplomatic Enclave and Murree pollutes the lake water.

The increased human activities in the catchment areas have deteriorated the lake’s water quality beyond acceptable limits. Due to this not only the filtration cost of the water has increased manifolds, but it is also adversely affecting the human health.

According to environmental experts, a ban should be imposed on the construction activities in the Rawal Lake catchment area comprising Zone 3 and 4.

They say the water treatment plant installed earlier to treat raw water of Rawal Lake was unable to filter the pollution. The treatment plant has been upgraded twice but now it has no capacity to be further upgraded, they said.

On last hearing, Murree Tehsil Municipal Officer had informed the court that there were 104 poultry farms in Murree and they have issued notices to owners not to release poultry waste in the lake. He had said Korang was main tributary, which was the main source of polluting lake water as 28 poultry farms were situated on its both sides. Later, the court adjourned further hearing till Friday.