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'Rawal Dam's
water contamination increasing'
ISLAMABAD-Water quality of Rawal Dam, the major water supply
source to Rawalpindi, is deteriorating with increasing
contents of human and poultry refuse, warns Environment
Protection Agency (EPA).
"Samples show that the water quality of Rawal Lake contains
high concentration of phosphate and sulphate, which is an
indication of human refuse and poultry farm pollutants," said
Director General EPA, Asif Shuja here on Friday.
Delivering a lecture on 'Controlling effluent and pollution in
Islamabad', organised by Leadership for Environment and
Development (LEAD), he cautioned, "As the water flow is
getting less day by day the concentrations will go up
further." Asif said the streams were becoming increasingly
smelly and the only solution is sectoral approach of treating
the nullahs. "We have to invest from our own resources, we
should not look to donors for environmental improvement," he
suggested. Water pollution was also due to defective water
supply system, as sewerage and water pipelines ran side by
side in the federal capital, he added.
The EPA, supported by Ministry of Environment, was going to
launch a national campaign against the polythene bags with the
slogan 'Say no to plastic bags' on the Earth Day falling on
April 22, he said. Asif was of the view that high tariff
should be imposed on the plastic bags to get rid of this
menace and incentives should be given to other manufacturers.
Talking about the potable water supply to Islamabad, he said
that it had gone down over the years owing to high population
growth, low rainfall, low capacity of reservoirs and neglect
of upstream development projects.
The director general EPA observed that although Islamabad had
a few industrial units, but they created high pollution
levels. The natural dust generated by crushers also went up in
the air and then it moved according to the wind direction. "As
the rainfall is getting less in Islamabad this problem is
further aggravating," he observed.
The wind direction is mostly from south-west to north-east
that brings 40 per cent pollution from Rawalpindi, and
Margalla Hills block this dust at the other end. "There is a
dire need to control particulate matter emission both in
Rawalpindi and Islamabad," he added. He said there were more
than 250 brick kilns around Islamabad, which should be
converted to gas to save the environment from air pollutants.
He said that vehicular pollution had become a serious problem
in Islamabad because all the heavy traffic on the GT Road was
diverted to Kashmir Highway to reach Rawat "because it is not
allowed to enter Rawalpindi". This is creating very high
particle levels and other gases, he said and added, "There
should be a bypass for this traffic."Moreover, around 96,000
unchecked vehicles are running between Rawalpindi and
Islamabad, which are greatly polluting the environment. He
said that the EPA found a high level of nitrogen oxide created
by the traffic at Aabpara, which caused heart attacks by
choking the arteries.
courtesy Daily The News ,
20
April, 2002
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Pakissan.com;
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