Dumping of waste: Tribunal issues notice to Pindi civic agency

Directs executive officer of the board to appear before a tribunal on April 4.

RAWALPINDI: Misrial village, serving as a dumping ground for Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) for over 50 years, might finally be freed of its curse.

A tribunal issued a notice to RCB Executive Officer Rana Manzoor Ahmed on Friday directing him to appear before a tribunal on April 4 for indictment.

The residents of the village had filed a complaint through Barrister Batish Mahmood with The Punjab Environment Protection Agency (Punjab-EPA) in 2007, alleging that RCB was dumping garbage in the village without adopting proper safety measures.

They said that Rawalpindi’s Misrial village was once famous for the historical Bhatta Fort and its serene landscape. But now the village is infamous for the garbage dump, spread over 400 kanals.

The RCB acquired 23 acres, or 180 kanals, in Misrial in 1960 for a garbage dumping site. Over the years the area more than doubled to 400 kanals.

In their complaint to Punjab-EPA, the complainants said that about 50,000 inhabitants of six villages around the garbage dump have no choice but to inhale the garbage and suffer the public health consequences of unchecked burning of all kinds of waste. The underground water in the area was also polluted, they said.

They added that part of the garbage being dumped or burned included unprocessed waste from private clinics, hospitals and laboratories. This waste also includes cultures and stocks of infectious agents, wastes from infected patients and contaminated with blood and derivatives. Discarded diagnostics samples, swabs, bandages, disposable devices, and infectious wastes including body parts were also part of the waste being dumped, said the villagers.

The complaint added that the residents of the village had approached RCB many times, urging removal of the garbage dump from the
residential area. But RCB did not pay heed to
their requests.

The District Officer Environment Shaukat Hayat submitted a detailed report to the tribunal probing the matter.

In his report, Hayat said that RCB was dumping and burning waste material in the village, which was causing a rise in hosts of diseases and posing a serious threat to the residents of the area.

The tribunal also visited the village and verified the presence of the dumping site.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2011.