Sewage treatment: River Ravi Commission discusses heavy metals

Members say industries should treat effluent before discharge.

LAHORE:

Experts discussed methods for the treatment of heavy metals in sewage in a meeting of the River Ravi Commission here at FC College on Thursday, said a press release issued by the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan).

The commission was formed on the orders of the Lahore High Court to prepare a report on what can be done to counter the pollution of the Ravi and to restore it to its natural ecological state.

Professor AR Saleemi, the technical member of the Punjab Environmental Tribunal, briefed the commission on the challenge of effluent treatment. He proposed that industries treat effluent before discharge.

Dr Asma Saeed of the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) and Dr Qaiser M Khan gave presentations on bio-absorption and bio-remediation, the use of biological organisms to remove pollutants. The attendees stressed the need for industry to comply with the law and to treat effluent before discharging it into water bodies.

A sub-committee of the commission will prepare a report on sewage treatment technologies that will be part of the main report to be submitted to the Lahore High Court.

Commission Chairman Dr Kausar Abdullah Malik had called the meeting, which was also attended by Ali Hassan Habib, the director general of WWF-Pakistan, Dr Saeed Iqbal Zafar, Zamir Soomro of the Pakistan Council for Research on Water Resources, and faculty from FC College and LUMS University.

The commission includes the advocate general, the Environment Protection Department secretary, the Lahore commissioner, the managing director of the Water and Sanitation Agency, Dr Vakar Zakrya, Kamil Khan Mumtaz and Ahmad Rafay Alam.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2012.