Hattar Industrial Estate: Toxic fumes causing skin, lung diseases

Local people inform German Ambassador Martin Kobler about environmental hazard in their area

HARIPUR: People are suffering from skin and lungs diseases due to toxic fumes emitting from the effluent factories are discharging in a wastewater nullah flowing right through the middle of a village, people living near Hattar Industrial Estate told German Ambassador Martin Kobler during his visit to Haripur on Friday.

Kobler met the local people and asked about the environmental issues they were facing while living lose to an industrial area. The envoy, on tour of the industrial estate, was accompanied by Haripur Deputy Commissioner Zahid Pervez Waraich and other officials.

People said that it is difficult to breathe near the wastewater channels in which factory waste is being discharged. “The chemical waste flowing out of Hattar Industrial Estate factories to different villages is making people sick,” said a local activist Masoodur Rehman.

“Particularly, in Dungi Village, skin and breathing ailments are rife due to toxic effluents,” he told the envoy famous for his criticism on social media.

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German ambassador visited the industrial estate and talked with the local business community in a meeting arranged by DC Waraich.

Kobler has said that German investors were keen to invest in the industries in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. However, he deplored that the environmental conditions were not satisfactory in Hattar Industrial Estate.

Meanwhile, talking to the media he said: “we are working with K-P government for investments in various sectors and also keen to work closely with districts for waste management and wastewater treatment plants.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2019.