Sewage dumping in Canal stopped, for now

Officials close 12 inlets but movement on sewerage works uncertain.

LAHORE:

Environment, irrigation and civic officials closed 12 inlets from housing societies, slums and a water park dumping raw sewage into the Canal on Thursday, though it was unclear how long they would remain shut.

These 12 inlets pipe sewage into the Canal from a water amusement park, three housing societies and eight slums or squatter settlements northeast of Baghbanpura.

“The inlets were closed with the Irrigation Department’s approval,” an Environmental Protection Department (EPD) official said. “Once areas under their jurisdiction are inundated with sewage, the TMAs are more likely to take the issue of dumping sewage in the Canal more seriously.”

Zafar Mushtaq, the officer in charge of infrastructure at Wagha Town, said it was unfair to blame town municipal administrations (TMAs) since the colonies dumping sewage into the Canal had been approved by the city council before the TMAs were formed.

The closing of the inlets came after officials of the EPD, Irrigation Department, Water and Sanitation Agency and TMAs met on Thursday. According to EPD spokesman Naseemur Rehman, it was decided at the meeting that the Aziz Bhatti Town and Wagha Town TMAs will lay two pipes along the Canal from Jallo Park to Harbanspura; Wasa will lay a pipe from Thokar Niaz Baig to Hadyara drain; and the Lahore Waste Management Company will put up bins along the Canal to discourage people from dumping garbage in the water.

EPD Secretary Sajjad Saleem Hotiana said the cost and time required to lay the pipelines would be determined by District Officer (Environment) Tariq Zaman. Another meeting with the city government’s Public Health Department will be called once the cost estimate is complete.

Mushtaq, the Wagha Town official, denied that the TMAs or Wasa had agreed at the meeting to lay pipelines, saying there had only been discussions about this.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6^th, 2011.