PFA uproots crops irrigated with hazardous water

Warning issued to those responsible for growing the crops


Imran Asghar February 01, 2019
A vegetable field uprooted for being irrigated with contaminated Nullah Leh water. PHOTO: EXPRESS

RAWALPINDI: The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) on Thursday destroyed crops grown on a 10-Kanal-strip of land which was being irrigated with dirty water from the Nullah Leh.

The crops destroyed included cabbage, lettuce, spinach, and carom (ajwain).

Some people had illegally occupied a strip of land along the banks of the massive stormwater drain, Nullah Leh, and were using it to grow vegetables for years. They had diverted the flow of hazardous water from the nullah to irrigate their fields.

The Rawalpindi District Health Department’s Health Officer Dr Naveed Akhtar, when asked about vegetables, were being grown using hazardous water had said that they had issued a high alert about the presence of the poliovirus and dengue larvae in the waters of the Nullah Leh.

“Forget drawing water for crops, even breathing near the Nullah Leh could be hazardous,” Dr Akhtar had said.

A spokesperson for PFA had said that they had never received such a complaint from Rawalpindi and promised to take action.

After a report about the matter had been published in The Express Tribune last week, the PFA spokesperson on Thursday said that crops being grown using water from Nullah Leh on land near Khayaban-e-Sir Syed, Dhoke Dalal, Pir Wadhai, Kashmir Colony and Carriage Factory Road, have been destroyed.

The official added that teams of the PFA first tried to get tractors to the fields. But when that was not possible, they got labourers to uproot the crops spread over 10 kanals of land and destroyed them.

The PFA official added that they did not face resistance of any kind from the farmers while uprooting the crops. However, a warning has been issued to those involved in maintaining the plantation that if they tried to grow crops using hazardous water, then they will be prosecuted.

In the news report, it had been found that crops grown using hazardous water was being sold in the markets of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 1st, 2019.

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