The business community of the federal capital on Wednesday demanded of the government to take immediate steps to set up sewage treatment plants in the city to reduce water pollution.
The representatives of trade and industry also said that the government had planned to set up four sewage treatment plants in Islamabad at an estimated cost of Rs2 billion, but despite a lapse of 10 years, no progress has been made on this project.
Sewage treatment plant setup in Sector I-9 Islamabad was also non-functional so it should be made functional immediately so that the wastewater that was flowing to various streams could be treated for beneficial use, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry Senior Vice President Tahir Abbasi said in a statement.
Currently only two water treatment plants were available in Islamabad, but were unable to supply the required water to the citizens due to low capacity.
Besides recycled water for industrial and horticulture use, Abbasi said that there was also shortage of clean drinking water in Islamabad which was a serious issue.
“Citizens are facing acute water shortage in various parts of the city,” Abbasi said adding due to non-availability of clean drinking water to the underprivileged people of the city, water borne diseases including hepatitis were on the rise in the residents of Islamabad.
He said that the present government has planned to set up a new water treatment plant to supply 52 million gallons per day water to the twin cities.
The ICCI official called for establishing more water filtration plants to provide clean drinking water to the residents of twin cities that would reduce the water-borne diseases as well.
ICCI Vice President SaifurRehman Khan said that more than 37 water filtration plants were installed in different sectors of Islamabad but most of them were either faulty or supplying contaminated water as their filters were not replaced in time.
Due to this situation, the citizens were getting contaminated water which was having adverse effects on their health. Therefore, he demanded that Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) should replace filters of all water filtration plants in Islamabad and install new plants in markets where this facility could not be provided as yet.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 16th, 2020.
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