Stop sewage flow into Rawal Lake, SC directs CDA, WASA

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

* SC directs Punjab government to appoint member of Environmental Tribunal for Rawalpindi within three days

By Masood Rehman

ISLAMABAD: A three-member Supreme Court (SC) bench on Friday directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Rawalpindi Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) to take immediate measures for stopping sewage into Rawal Lake.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, was hearing a suo motu case of Rawal Lake water contamination and its supply to inhabitants of Rawalpindi city and cantonment area.

Secretary Cabinet Division Chaudhry Abdul Rauf submitted minutes of the meeting held on August 31 with all the stakeholders on the directions of the apex court for taking concrete measures to ensure that neither polluted nor treated water should flow into the Rawal Lake. The court directed the officials of environment protection agencies to visit the sewage sites themselves instead of sitting in their offices and adjourned hearing of the case till October 1.

The director generals of Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) and Punjab EPA informed the court that besides issuing notices to those responsible for sewage into Rawal Lake, they have filed cases against the violators in the Environment Tribunal of Punjab. However, they said one member of the tribunal retired last week, thus the matter could not be decided yet.

The Cabinet Division secretary told the court that he would contact to the Punjab chief secretary for filling the vacant post in the tribunal so that cases could be decided expeditiously. The court directed the Punjab government to appoint member of Environmental Tribunal for Rawalpindi within three days with direction to the Environmental Tribunal to hold hearing after September 17 on daily basis and submit a report of the cases to the SC Registrar.

During the hearing, the CJP observed that if the law would not be enforced on equal basis, then the problems would increase. Justice Ramday noted that five-million gallon sewerage water per day was mixing in the water of Rawal Lake and questioned that who was responsible for it. The CJP noted that all the illegal settlements of Zone-IV, which were polluting the Lake water, should be abolished.

Rawal Lake is an important artificial fresh water reservoir that provides 23 million gallons per day (MGD) clean drinking water to the inhabitants of Rawalpindi city and cantonment areas. 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, Bahara Kahu, Diplomatic Enclave and Murree pollutes the lake water.

The increased human activities in the catchment area have deteriorated the raw water quality of the lake beyond acceptable limits. Due to that not only the filtration cost of the raw water has increased manifolds, but it is also adversely impacting health of Rawalpindi city and cantonment residents. The WASA has demanded ban on the construction activities in the Rawal Lake catchment area comprising Zone 3 and 4. According to managing director WASA, the water treatment plant installed earlier to treat raw water of Rawal Lake is unable to filter the pollution. He said that twice they have upgraded the treatment plant but now they don’t have capacity to further upgrade it.