Unrestrained water pollution

Speakers at a seminar on "Water Footprint of Cotton Value Chain", hosted the other day by the University of Agriculture at Faisalabad, warned of the hazards industrial effluents pose to human health. Indeed, improper disposal of industrial effluents containing all sorts of toxic substances are known to pollute underground aquifers as well as waterways. As a result, domestic users are directly affected from drinking contaminated water and indirectly from the pollutants finding their way into the food chain. It may be recalled that about two years ago, untreated waste from tanneries in Kasur had caused a major health scare when people drinking polluted water started suffering from various diseases and disorders. After the media consistently spotlighted the situation, the concerned authorities came up with an effective response with the help of UNDP and UNIDO.
As the reminder by UAF seminar participants shows, the problem remains largely unaddressed; in fact it is growing with growing industrial activity. Effluents are casually discharged into stagnant ponds from where they seep down into the underground aquifers, or are dumped into streams, canals, rivers and lakes, damaging human health and destroying irreplaceable flora and fauna. Even the Manchar Lake, Asia's largest fresh water lake, supplying drinking water to its adjoining areas and cities from Dadu to Sehwan, Hyderabad and Karachi has not been spared. Only after a huge civil society outcry over distressing levels of pollution an effort is under way to stop release of industrial waste and sewage into it. There are a countless other similar examples such as Rawalpindi's Lye Nalah, once a fresh water stream, which is now a heavily polluted dirty water channel. This must not be allowed to go on forever. The environment ministries both at the Centre and in the provinces ought to recognise the problem for what it is and address it. The bigger industries of course can fend for themselves; the others ought to be pushed to set up common facilities for treatment and discharge of hazardous effluents.
It was also pointed out at the seminar that a key socio-economic challenge is to stop mismanagement of the water resource. That should be of serious concern to those in charge of planning and implementing development policies given that Pakistan is a water-scarce country facing a grave impending threat of water shortages, and consequently food security. So far, the attitude seems not to worry about something that has not happened yet even though the climate change has already started manifesting itself in recurring floods and altering weather patterns which, experts warn, will lead to persistent droughts. Before it is too late, all concerned need to get their act together and undertake well thought-out strategies to conserve water and promote its judicious use by domestic consumers as well as farming communities.