KASUR: The treatment plant at the Kasur Tanneries Waste Management Agency (KTWMA) is malfunctioning as it works for few hours a day. That means that residents relying on the River Sutlej are getting untreated, polluted water most of the time.

According to a handout from the deputy commissioner, Provincial Minister for Environment Zakia Shahnawaz visited the KTWMA where she was briefed that due to the lack of funds, the treatment plant worked only for a few hours every day. Polluted water containing arsenic and other harmful pollutants, discharged from the leather units, was being released untreated into the Sutlej.

KTWMA officials said because of the shortage of funds, they were finding it difficult to run the plant on a permanent basis.

The provincial minister ordered the officials to prepare a summary of the expenditures of the plant and urged the KTWMA to collect arrears from tannery owners.

Tannery owners pay the KTWMA according to the quantity of the water discharged from their tanneries. In the absence of the treatment plant, water is thrown untreated into the River Sutlej.

The tanneries’ owners are also reluctant to pay dues to the KTWMA as they say the plant remains closed and is made functional only at the time of visit of some VIPs.

INJURED: Two persons were injured when the wall of a house collapsed on them on Monday at Rajiwala village, in the jurisdcition of the Saddar police.

Muhammad Latif and his brother, Faisal, were repairing their old house when an old wall of the house collapsed on them.

Villagers and Rescue 1122 pulled them out from the rubble and rushed them to the Kasur District Headquarters Hospital where they were stated to be stable.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2017