Sewage from Rawalpindi city, including from private housing societies and residential and commercial units, is discharged into the Korang and Soan rivers without being treated, causing environmental pollution in the area.

Islamabad also discharges 100 cusecs of sewage into Leh Nullah every day that has not been treated at a sewage treatment plant, causing additional pollution in Rawalpindi city.

Under the law, private housing societies cannot be registered if they do not set up sewage treatment plants to treat their sewage before it is discharged into the main drain or stream. However, neither the local administration nor the Rawalpindi Development Authority has taken notice of the violations, and has issued no-objection certificates (NoC) to housing schemes in the city.

The local administrations of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, by discharging sewage into the Soan and Korang rivers without treatment, are also in violation of the law.

A few years ago, the Punjab Environment Protection Agency (Punjab-EPA) asked the local administration not to discharge municipal sewage into Soan River because it caused water pollution and the depletion of dissolved oxygen in the river’s surface water. The agency also asked the Defence Housing Authority and Bahria Town, but its requests fell on deaf ears.

According to EPA officials, their investigations found that the lack of a sewage treatment plant was causing environmental pollution, as defined under section 2 of the Pakistan Environmental Act 1997, and adverse environmental effects are caused by the discharge of untreated municipal sewage in Soan River.

An official from the agency said a proper plan is needed to ensure that the Soan and Korang rivers are kept clean for the future, as they will be sources of clean water in the coming days.

He said the presence of the rivers would be important for the twin cities as they would also recharge the area’s underground water table.

A senior official from the local administration told Dawn that all private housing schemes discharge untreated water into the two aforementioned rivers.

“There is no plan to establish a sewage treatment plant in the garrison city, as the Punjab government does not have funds available for the project. We made the project to establish a treatment plant for donor agencies who frequently visited the garrison city, but at present no donor has expressed the willingness to do the job,” he said.

There is no proper sewerage system in Rawalpindi city. Only 40pc of the area has sewerage lines, while the remaining 60pc are without. All of the city’s sewage is discharged into Leh Nullah, and even sewage from areas where sewerage lines are present is discharged into Leh Nullah without being treated.

A project was launched in 2006, with the help of the Asian Development Fund, to treat sewage in Leh Nullah at Adiala Village and use the treated water for agriculture purposes, but the project was stopped after the PML-N government asked to add waste from the cantonments to it. The bank refused to fund the project in the cantonment areas, as it was against their policy to fund projects for military areas.

“The Asian Development Fund’s Rawalpindi Environmental Improvement Project (REIP) sewage treatment plant project, which was worth Rs1.4 billion and abandoned in 2008, needs to be revived,” a senior official from the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) said.

He said land was procured near Adiala Road for the plant, and is in Wasa’s possession.

“As many as 6,000 kanals of land was acquired from three villages: Gidhpur, Gorkhpur and Jabar Miana,” he said.

According to the plan, the plant was to be set up in Adiala, and the main sewerage line would run along Nullah Leh from Moti Mehal to Adiala. The main sewage collection point was to be constructed on Murree Road, near Moti Mehal Cinema, from where the sewage would be directed to the plant through a pipeline, and would then be treated and used for irrigation.

The plant was to be able to treat 150 cusecs of water and would have improved agricultural activities in the region, which rely mainly on rainwater.

Wasa Managing Director Raja Shaukat Mehmood told Dawn a sewage treatment plant needs to be installed before sewage is discharged into clean water channels and streams, as this creates problems for residential areas downstream.

He said that Wasa holds 6,000 kanals of land in Adiala, and if the Punjab government releases funding the agency would start working on the project.

Punjab-EPA Deputy Director Shahid Hassan said the department was currently working on the anti-dengue campaign, and had left work on environmental pollution. However, he also said sewage treatment plants are needed in all private housing socities and in the city, to discharge Leh Nullah sewage into Soan River.

The Punjab government has taken notice of the issue, and has decided to reroute Leh Nullah to improve on environmental degradation in the city, Rawalpindi Commissioner Talat Mehmood Gondal told Dawn.

He said the plan aims to stop Islamabad’s sewage in the city areas, as it causes pollution and health hazards in the low-lying areas of Rawalpindi city. Mr Gondal said the federal government would give Rs16 billion for the project.

The commissioner said the federal government has asked the provincial government to make a plan to relocate Leh Nullah, and may submit a project concept-1 as soon as possible. He said a sewage treatment plant may also be included, but things would be finalised once the feasibility study begins.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2017