PESHAWAR: The provincial capital’s lone sewage treatment plant hasn’t become operational since its establishment 16 years ago exposing the inefficiency of the local government and rural development department.

Now, the sprawling ponds of the plant meant for the treatment of sewage before its falling into the adjacent Bara River, a tributary of the Kabul River, are a dumping ground.

Neither the Municipal Corporation Peshawar, which was tasked with collecting garbage in the city until September 15, 2014, nor the newly-established Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP), a government-owned company, are ready to take responsibility for the misuse of the precious land.

Huge ponds at the facility have become dumping grounds

According to the officials in the know, the sewage treatment plant established in 1999 hasn’t become functional due to the LGRDD disinterest and incompetence.

Work on the plant began in 1987 and finished at a cost of Rs120 million provided by the Asian Development Bank.

The land of the facility located along the Ring Road adjacent to Gulbahar area is valued at billion of rupees.

The ADB wrapped up the project in 1999 suggesting the then provincial government to meeting its remaining requirements.

When asked why the plant’s ponds were filled with the garbage of the city and were not operational, MCP Administrator Zafar Ali Shah first expressed ignorance about it but later said the responsibility of water and sanitation had been shifted to the newly-established WSSP company.

Dawn spoke to several MCP officials, who have long been serving on key positions, but they all were found unaware of the history of the sewage treatment plant and filling of its ponds with garbage.

When contacted, WSSP manager (operations) Nasir Ghafoor Khan said the WSSP was not responsible for the filling of ponds with garbage as water and sanitation services had been shifted to his company four months ago.

“Everyone at MCP knows the plant’s big ponds can’t fill with garbage in four months. It means the throwing of garbage there began long ago,” he said.

The manager said the site was selected for the scientific dumping of garbage in Maryamzai area on Kohat Road and that the process to buy land had been carried out.

He said more than 80 kanals of land would be purchased for garbage dumping.

An environmentalist told Dawn that the falling of untreated sewage into the Kabul River would cause imbalance in the ecosystem.

He said the sewage of the city and its peripheries had long been falling in the canal meant for irrigation.

The environmentalist said the mixing of sewage with the irrigation water was damaging soil and crops in the area. He also said the seepage of untreated sewage contaminated drinking water, an alarming activity.

A senior MCP official said ponds were established on Charsadda and Warsak roads for sewage treatment long ago but they had yet to become functional.

He said it was planned that water containing waste discharged from houses would stay in the first pond for three days and in the next for seven days before falling into the Bara River.

When asked about the delay in the plant’s operationalisation, the official said the main part of the project was the establishment of ponds and the purchase of land and that was done by the ADB, and the only portion left was the laying of pipes to take sewage to ponds.

He said it was not the responsibility of the ADB to install pipes and instead it had suggested the provincial government to do the job.

The official said the establishment of ponds on three different sites in the suburbs of the city could cater to only 30 per cent population.

He said before winding up the project, the ADB had suggested the government to extend the project by locating more sites for ponds in future but unfortunately, the successive governments failed to make the sewage treatment plant functional.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2015

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