FAISALABAD, Dec 7: Punjab Environment Minister Makhdoom Ashfaq said on Wednesday the combined effluent water treatment plants would be installed in four major cities of the province to control industrial pollution and save the underground water from chemicals.

Presiding over a meeting here, he said the first plant would be installed in the industrial area of Khurrianwala at a cost of Rs670 million. In the second phase, such plants would be installed in Multan, Lahore and Sialkot.

The government, he said, was determined to shift the industrial units from the city areas to places in far-flung areas of major districts for which the trade and industrial organizations as well as the local governments had been issued standing instructions.

He made it clear that if the industrialists failed to shift their concerns from the populous areas, the government would get a bill passed from the assembly to force implementation of the plan.

He said the people had been facing innumerable problems owing to chemically-polluted water and smokes emitted from industries in the congested areas.

He said a green fund had been introduced with Rs1 billion for the provision of soft loans to interested individuals and groups for elimination of pollution. The government would introduce rickshaws and taxies as well as passenger buses with CNG-fitted kits to reduce air pollution in big cities.

The minister said a plan had been finalized to install water filtration plants in every union council of the province to provide sweet water to the people. Similarly, the mega water supply project funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency would formally be started here within a fortnight.

Efforts were being made to launch various projects for the disposal and recycling of solid waste of the big cities and to make fertilizers with this effluent, the minister said.

He asked the industrialists to install water treatment plants in their factories.

City District Nazim Rana Zahid Tauseef briefed the minister on the local government’s plan about environment protection.