Dept set to study Hudiara Drain for treatment plant

Funding for study will be released in July.

LAHORE: Environmental Protection Department Deputy Director Naseemur Rehman Shah said on Wednesday that a feasibility study (PC-II) regarding the establishment of a water treatment plant on the Hudiara Drain had been approved by the Planning and Development Department. 

Shah said the department would conduct an extensive study in the area to establish where treatment plants were required. He said this would be completed within the year. Shah said funding for the study would be released in July.



EPD Secretary Iqbal Chohan said the department had been trying to ensure that industrial units, major contributors of hazardous waste, took responsibility on this front. He said he had spoken about the joint-construction of a water-treatment plant with owners of industrial units in the Quaid-i-Azam Industrial Estate. Chohan said the department had been pushing the WASA, the Irrigation Department and industrial units in the drain’s vicinity to make adequate arrangements. “The Irrigation Department has started lining the drain to put an end to water seepage into the ground,” he said.

Shah said the department had referred the case of small industrial units located in the drain’s vicinity to the environmental tribunal as they were not in a position to establish a water treatment plant collectively. He said the department had been striving to ensure early establishment of water treatment plants. Shah said the expenditure expected to be incurred on a project of such a great scale.  Hudiara Drain is one of 14 drains that discharge wastewater into River Ravi. Discharge from nine of these will be regulated under the River Ravi Zone Development Project under the stewardship of the Lahore Development Authority. A spokesperson for the LDA said the project was still in a formative stage.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2015.