A picture-postcard destination, surrounded by poisonous water

Overflowing sewers creating health hazard. High air pollution blamed for skin diseases.

GILGIT: Residents of the Gilgit-Baltistan’s capital city have expressed concern over the rising cases of skin diseases. They blamed the rising pollution and lack of sewerage system in the city that poses a serious threat to the health of the local population.

They sought help from the Supreme Appellate Court (SAC) to take notice of the problems and direct the authorities concerned to address the issue.

“The city roads and streets are inundated by sewage and heaps of filth and garbage can be seen everywhere but the civic agencies seem to be sleeping on them,” complained Musa Khan, a resident of Gilgit on Monday as disease of skin and lungs increased in the town.

Tufial Ali, a resident of Gilgit whose house often gets flooded due to water overflowing from the banks of a nearby channel, said, “It’s the new trend in Pakistan, these days unless a court takes action, administration officials sit idly with fingers crossed,”
he said.

Tufail added that apart from the sewerage issue, environmental pollution is a major worry as burning of firewood for heating has added up to the rising smog level
during winter.

The unplanned mushrooming of houses in the town has aggravated the sewerage system as efforts to correct it have mostly met with failure. Monday’s showers once again exposed the weakness and flaws of the system as roads and streets turned into ponds, making travel impossible.

“This is nothing unusual. This is what we were born here with,” said Aqeel Ahmed, a shopkeeper who often sees deep puddles form in front of his shop near Gilgit’s main market, the NLI
Shopping Centre.

Mohammad Ijaz Wali, another vendor, said that the hygienic measures taken in hospitals are also unsatisfactory as it is feared that hospitals are hubs of diseases rather than treatment. “Only the Chief Justice of the SAC can put the house in order,” said Aqeel.

Officials in government hospital said that skin diseases are on the rise and suspected polluted air as being a possible cause. “This could be one of the reasons,” he said requesting anonymity as he wasn’t authorized to make statements officially.

Most people afflicted with skin diseases go to Islamabad for specialized treatment as Gilgit-Baltistan only has a handful of laboratory testing facilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2011.