PESHAWAR: Only one of the four sewage treatment plants established 20 years ago in Peshawar is functional, while the other three have been lying abandoned.

Sources said that currently the market value of the land of the sewage treatment plants was in billions, but it couldn’t be utilised for the purpose it was acquired.

They said that these sewage plants were established in 1993 by the project management unit, which was formed for execution of the plan to treat sewage water before being thrown into Kabul River and local canals.

The four sewage plants are located in the periphery areas of the city, including on Ring Road, Charsadda Road, Warsak Road and in Hayatabad. Only the sewage plant established on Warsak Road is currently operational, said the sources.

An official of the Municipal Corporation Peshawar (MCP) told Dawn that these sewage plants were established at unfeasible locations and that was why these couldn’t be made functional.

He said that no one in the provincial government had ever bothered to seek explanation from the planners at that time about the wastage of public money.

The MCP has turned one of the abandoned sewage plants on Ring Road near Hazarkhwani village into a dumping site. Tons of garbage from the city is transported by the MCP daily and dumped at the sewage plant spread over 253 kanals.

During a visit to the plant site, this reporter observed that two of the several vast ponds made for water treatment had already been filled with garbage as there was no dumping site for garbage.

The establishment of these sewage plants was funded by the Asian Development Bank. The sources said that the ADB had completed the project at a cost of around Rs120 million.

Chief Municipal Officer of the MCP Javed Amjad, when contacted, said that all the filled ponds would be emptied and garbage removed from the premises of sewage plant. He said that garbage would be sold to one of the cement factories who would make fuel from it.

He said that the MCP was in contact with the administration of some cement factories which had shown interest in buying the garbage.

He said that the sewage plants would be handed over to the multi-billion US-funded municipal service project for making them operational.

Asked about the remaining work at the plants, the sources said that most of the work had been completed 20-year ago by the ADB, including construction of ponds and purchase of land. They said that only pipes would be laid to feed sewage to the ponds.

In the absence of sewage plants, the untreated drain water had been falling in different canals in Peshawar making the water unfit for irrigation.

The sources said that the establishment of four sewage plants was sufficient for treating sewage produced only by 30 per cent population of the city.