Hyderabad dumps 960 tons of waste every day in Phuleli Canal

Govt plans to start crackdown against businesses involved in dumpings

HYDERABAD:

The Hyderabad City taluka dumps nearly 660 tons of waste every day into Phuleli Canal, followed by 300 tons from Latifabad taluka, according to Hyderabad administrator Aijazul Hassan.

The Qasimabad and Hyderabad Rural talukas also add another few hundred tons. “Our [garbage] lifting capacity doesn’t allow us to ensure that all garbage dumps in the two talukas are cleared every day,” he said, adding that they can lift only 400 tons from City taluka and 200 tons from Latifabad taluka. Hassan confirmed that they have yet to acquire a dumping site on the district’s outskirts.



This blatant disregard to protect the 60-mile-long water and irrigation source for three districts of rural Sindh — Hyderabad, Tando Muhammad Khan and Badin — has led the government to finally become serious about taking action. The Sindh Environment Protection Agency has promised immediate measures to contain the hazard.

“We will immediately ban the dumping of municipal waste [on the canal’s banks] and, within weeks, relocate the cattle pens, poultry farms and slaughter houses,” announced Sindh environment minister Dr Sikandar Mandhro at a press conference on Monday. “A committee has also been constituted to survey within a week the industries in Hyderabad’s SITE area that are releasing toxic water.”

Assisted by Hyderabad commissioner Syed Asif Hyder Shah, Mandhro asserted that they will show results. The district administration and the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation will push the authorised pens, farms and houses to shift to other parts of the district while the unauthorised ones will be sealed.

Waste not

Apart from the solid waste dumped by industries and slaughterhouses, around four dozens drains and piped outlets in Hyderabad discharge over 225,000 cubic meter liquid of waste every day. Darya Khan pumping station releases 96,441 cubic meters per day, Kali Mori open drain 56,376, Old Power House open drain 42, 323, Cantonment Board Hyderabad 13,944, SITE pumping station and other sources 13,500 each.



While Hyderabad’s residents have been lucky to receive water supply from the filtration plants, their rural counterparts as well as residents of Tando Muhammad Khan and Badin districts have not been so lucky. The dwellers of these areas drink and irrigate their agricultural land directly from the contaminated Phuleli canal and its connected distributaries and watercourses.

SEPA’s action

According to SEPA regional director Muneer Abbasi, there are 50 farms, 20 pens and three slaughter houses near the canal. Even after a drive against the residential and commercial structures built on encroached parts on the banks was announced, it remained unclear how will the administration remove the squatters.

“From today, there will be a ban on offloading municipal waste. And over the next few weeks, the existing solid waste on either sides of the canals will be lifted,” said the commissioner.



The toxins include selenium, fluorides, sulphates, cyanide, barium, phenols, boron, vinyl chloride, monomer, carcinogens and asbestos, according to SEPA. Their health effects include diarrhoea, gastrointestinal, heart and nervous diseases, tooth decay and many types of cancers.

Meanwhile, the three-member SITE committee, headed by private water expert Dr Ahsan Siddiqui with officials of Sepa and SITE as members, will inspect all the 311 functioning industries in SITE area. “We will check the in-house waste treatment plants,” Siddiqui told The Express Tribune. “The list of industries violating the environmental rules and terms of their agreement with SITE will be submitted to the government.” There are 42 rice, pulses and oil mills, 40 glass and bangles industries, 30 textile and ginning mills, 27 poultry feed manufacturers and 18 automobile factories, among others, in SITE.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th,  2015.