THE availability of water suitable for human consumption in Lahore and its ad­joining areas is rapidly shrinking. This is due to the drainage of untreated sewage and industrial effluent into the Ravi and injection of industrial discharge into the underground water.

With Lahore district’s burgeoning popu­lation and manufacturing activity, water pollution is reaching dangerous levels, the manifestation of which can be seen in the increased incidence of waterborne and skin diseases and bone deformities among resi­dents, especially in the neighbouring rural areas.

Credible evidence suggests that dozens of factories in the city, especially those situated in two industrial areas, dispose of their effluents by injecting them into the ground through deep wells with the help of pumping machines.

These factories employ this novel method of waste disposal for the reason that they are located far from the city’s major storm drains which carry untreated waste water from other thousands of big and small factories located on their banks.

Criminal industrial activity is polluting Lahore’s water reserves.

Dumping of waste water in the ground triggers changes in the geo-chemistry of the aquifer, raising its pH level and prompting the sub-soil rocks to release elements such as arsenic and fluoride into the water. Central Punjab’s rocks are known to be ‘rich’ in arsenic.

In the past few years, officials from the environment protection department dete­c­ted several factories, including manufac­turers of pharmaceuticals and pesticides, involved in polluting underground water through injection of waste but these cases were hushed up. A few officials who raised a hue and cry were sidelined.

Lahore’s supply of potable water comes from around 4,000 tube wells that pump out the underground water. However, this obnoxious criminal activity is polluting the city’s under­ground water reserve with harmful toxins such as mercury, lead, zinc, chromium, toxic chemicals and bacteria, rendering it unsafe for drinking purposes and household use.

In the city’s surrounding areas located close to industrial units, circumstantial evidence, including the spread of diseases among villagers, points to the contamination of water by toxic chemicals. The incidence of cholera, bone deformities, skin diseases and renal failure is on the rise.

In 2000, a large number of residents of Kalanawala village in suburban Lahore were found to be suffering from bone de­formities. Later, it was discovered that the underground water in the village was polluted owing to the discharge of a nearby factory. However, even this much-publicised incident did not prompt the authorities to take corrective measures.

Although the underground water in the industrial suburbs is more contaminated than that in the city proper, the entire aquifer is in danger. This is because increased pumping out of water by tube wells has lowered the city’s water table, as a consequence of which underground water from surrounding areas is rushing in towards the main city.

The Punjab Environment Protection Act 1997 (as amended in 2002) bars factories from releasing untreated waste water but this is observed mainly in the breach. The Punjab environment protection department, created to enforce the environment law, has failed in doing its job because of corruption.

The law serves as a vehicle for illegal gratification for the staff posted to inspect all institutions, industries, factories and medical and other laboratories. There is hardly a unit in the city which has arrangements to clean its waste water before transferring it into sewerage or storm drains, but all of them get no-objection certificates from the department.

Around 800 big industrial units located on the banks of eight storm drains are dumping their untreated waste water into these channels; aside from that, untreated discharge from thousands of small factories goes into the sewerage system. The city’s entire sewage ends up in the Ravi poisoning aquatic life.

The government is apathetic to environmental issues. In recent years, it has not conducted a credible empirical study to gauge water quality in the metropolis, a task that should be a priority.

Two years ago, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif instituted a high-level committee to start treatment of the city’s largest open drain, Hudiara, which carries sewage and industrial effluents to the Ravi. A feasibility study was prepared but the project is gathering dust.

The government needs to engage private consultants to conduct an environment audit of factories in Lahore, if not all over Punjab. The province’s allegedly corrupt environ­ment protection department and its poorly equipped laboratories cannot be trusted to carry out this task.

It must be realised that availability of safe potable and irrigation water is a grave issue. If the alleged injection of waste water in the underground water goes unchecked it would render this huge source of potable water unfit for human consumption for centuries to come.

The writer is a Lahore-based journalist.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2015

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