Briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Environment, CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi said that all sources of pollution from the capital territory including Bari Imam, Diplomatic Enclave, Bhara Kahu and Quaid-i-Azam University had been plugged. However, pollution continued to flow from Rawalpindi. The major source of pollution was the Murree area.
He also sought the committee’s help in asking the Punjab government to take early steps in this regard as the lake was the main water reservoir for Rawalpindi and its pollution was a serious health hazard for the population of the twin cities. The committee, headed by MNA Mohammad Asad, decided to hold a joint meeting of authorities from Rawalpindi, the Environment Ministry and CDA to fix the responsibility for the lake’s pollution.
The CDA chairman said that solid waste dumping, outflows from poultry farms and small industries, development activities and tourism were the main sources of pollution in Rawal Lake. The supreme court had already taken suo motu notice of the issue and the case was now in court.
He said that CDA’s environment wing had surveyed Bari Imam and Bani Gala areas in coordination with Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency and Islamabad Police. The survey had identified as many as 317 polluting sewers which were plugged after the end of seven day’s notice period to the polluters.
The members of the committee pointed out that the people were dumping waste in the nullahs instead of the specified garbage storage facilities. The committee directed the CDA to take strong action against the polluters and the encroachers of green belts.
The committee also directed CDA to take appropriate action against those people who build additional rooms in their official residences without following rules and regulations.
Talking about clean water management in the city, the chairman said that there were 37 water filtration plants in Islamabad of which 33 were functional while the remaining four had been closed temporarily. The authority checked the filters regularly and got the water double checked by independent labs. He assured that recent test results had revealed that all filtration plants were providing safe drinking water.
The chairman CDA informed the committee that the civic authority was the first municipality in the country to launch rain water conservation in the city.
He added that as many as 20 projects were being executed in the city including swales, soakaways, rooftop collection systems, recharge shafts, ground water recharge through abandoned tubewells.
He further said that a task force had been established for cleaning of ravines and an MoU had been signed with Rotary Club Islamabad Green City for cleaning of ravines passing through F-9 Park.
The members criticised the Environmental Ministry for holding conferences and spending huge amounts on these activities in spite of the decision to pass the ministry to provincial control.
The committee also expressed concern over the continuous absence of the officials of the Environment Ministry from the committee meeting.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 16th, 2010.
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