ISLAMABAD: Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid has said Rawal Lake should not be used for recreational activities and that its water should be used for drinking.

Members of the Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change, who met on Thursday to find a solution to the pollution problems in the reservoir, agreed with the minister.

PTI’s Senator Samina Abid said recreational activities should be stopped “immediately because they add to the pollution problems of the already heavily contaminated Rawal Lake.”

Awami National Party (ANP) Senator Sitara Ayaz and PML-N Senator Nuzhat Saddiq also agreed with the suggestion and said it should be implemented immediately.

Senate body informed lake water is contaminated with fecal coliform found in human waste

The meeting was told that the lake had many owners and that it sit on the land owned by the Capital Development Authority (CDA). While the lake is managed by the Small Dams Organisation, its water is treated by the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) before being supplied to Rawalpindi.

Members were informed about the many factors that added to the water’s contamination, including human and animal waste, runoff from poultry farms and cattle barns, soil contaminated with pesticides and fertilizers, industrial waste, microbes from dead animals and solid waste landfills.

Managing Director Wasa Raja Shaukat Mehmood told the meeting that the lake’s water was heavily contaminated with fecal coliform, a form of bacteria found in human waste.

Mr Mehmood said, “The percentage of fecal coliform found in drinking water from the reservoir increases in summers. The cost of treating the water has also increased significantly over the years. The rapid filtration plant that was installed in 1962 is now overburdened because of the uncontrollable levels of pollution in the lake.”

Ghulam Sarwar Sandhu, who is the director general civic management at the CDA, said waste from poultry farms was the biggest reason for the water being contaminated.

Farzana Altaf Shah of the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) said human waste from settlements around the lake, like Bani Gala, was directly being dumped into the water.

Ziaul Islam, director Pak-EPA, suggested the lake should be made completely inaccessible.

He said, “All recreational activities must be stopped immediately and the lake should be made inaccessible, much like Simly Dam, which provides drinking water to Islamabad’s residents and is a no-go area for visitors.”

When the chairman of the committee, Senator Mir Mohammad Yousuf Badini, asked who was to blame for the pollution in the dam, CDA and Pak-EPA officials said the Islamabad capital territory (ICT) was responsible.

However, Member Environment CDA Mustafain Kazmi said managing the environment was Pak-EPA’s responsibility and that they had been slacking in the area.

Senator Samina Abid argued that it was the CDA which allowed the recreational activities in and around the water reservoir and that the authority should accept their share of the responsibility for the contamination of the water.

The chairman of the committee then asked the minster for climate change to bring all the concerned departments together, including the CDA, Pak-EPA, ICT administration and the provincial government departments, and get them to accept shared responsibility for the pollution in the water.

He added, “We also recommend that the finance division release funds for installing sewage treatment plants at three locations upstream. The plants are much needed to control pollution in Rawal Lake.”

To control water pollution in streams feeding Rawal Lake, the CDA had proposed installing the treatment plants in 2010. However, an amount of Rs1.2 billion needed for the installation of the plants was not released.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2015