HYDERABAD: Retired Justice Amir Hani Muslim, head of one-man Supreme Court-appointed commission on water quality in Sindh, on Wednesday directed the officers concerned to expedite the process for restoration of retaining wall along New Phulelli Canal and warned “delays would not be tolerated”.

Justice Muslim, who spent the whole day visiting Hyderabad and Matiari districts before returning to Karachi in the evening, expressed dissatisfaction at the pace of work on improvement of 30MGD plant and called for expediting it.

He saw during a visit to old Phulelli Canal that retaining wall was being erected to stop dumping of garbage and carcasses on the canal’s bank and showed displeasure that solid waste was still being mixed with municipal waste which otherwise could be prevented from going into the canal by fixing a fence at the mouth of sewerage disposal point to separate it from waste water.

Hyderabad Mayor Syed Tayyab Hussain informed the judge that staff had been deputed to ensure no carcass was thrown into the canal. “There is some improvement now,” he observed.

People living near the canal complained to the judge that they were being dispossessed of their property although they had documents. He told them he would take up the issue with the authorities concerned.

Justice Muslim was disappointed to see an entire strip of the canal’s cross section and retaining wall non-existent and the bank buried under a thick layer of solid waste.

He said this must stop and questioned Sida’s managing director Wali Mohammad Naich, who informed him about the scheme for restoration of canal’s bank with retaining wall, road and grill from RD-0 to RD-40 which was under consideration.

The officer though conceded he had not yet submitted the scheme to government and the judge asked him to submit it within seven days and restore the bank near Noorani Basti bridge on a war footing.

Irrigation Secretary Jamal Mustafa Syed promised to collaborate with mayor and deputy commissioner to ensure restoration of the canal bank at RD-26.

The retired judge said that it should be done without wasting further time and directed the functionaries concerned to come up with a short-term plan to resolve the problem.

At another place along the canal Justice Muslim was shocked to find labourers processing husk manually, spreading air pollution. He asked MD Sida why such an activity was going on unnoticed in flagrant violation of standard operating procedures (SOP) of irrigation department.

The MD was asked to ban it and remove entire quantity of husk and gunny bags stuffed with different materials. He said that disposal of waste water of dyeing industry in new Phulelli Canal should also be stopped after meeting formalities.

Chairmen of the union committees of the area complained to the judge that the husk processing had made it difficult for them and their families to lead a healthy life.

They were told to file an application with sessions judge, identifying individuals who processed husk on canal’s bank and the judge would take action as per law.

“It will be enough if you are made to stand at this point as punishment,” he said angrily addressing Sindh Environmental Protection Agency’s deputy director Munir Abbasi for his failure to curb the practice under environmental laws.

Justice Muslim disapproved of the proposed site for solid waste management when deputy commissioner Mohammad Saleem Rajput and mayor explained to him that the 200 acres reserved as landfill site were part of Education City. “Let’s drop this site as proposed,” said the former judge.

The judge visited modern slaughterhouse of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and then went to Matiari where he found the town’s main water supply scheme dysfunctional.

He directed Public Health Engineering chief engineer Nafees Shaikh to restore filter bed at a cost of Rs1.2 million to be borne by town committee. He directed Matiari sessions judge to depute a magistrate who would visit pumping station and water supply schemes of Bhitshah and Hala and submit a report within seven days along with photographs.

Matiari town committee officer Ejaz Ahmed Sheikh was directed to approach the deputy commissioner for retrieving land of water supply scheme that had been occupied by one Sadruddin Memon.

Meanwhile, Wasa employees in Hyderabad complained to the judge that they had not been paid salary for six months. Sindh government’s focal person Dr Saeed Qureshi contacted Sindh chief secretary over mobile phone and the judge asked him to ensure release of the salary. CS promised to release it in next two to three days.

SUKKUR: Civil judge Abdul Faheem Panhwar accompanied by EPA officials and sub-engineer SITE visited industrial units on the directives of Justice Muslim and collected samples of water supply and drainage.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2018