LAHORE: A meeting held at the Environment Protection Department has noticed that several industries in Punjab are not following regulations when it comes to treating wastewater, as well as gaseous emissions.

While the EPD Secretary Dr Zafar Nasrullah Khan had earlier issued a warning to the industries regarding gas emissions and gave them a time frame for following the related SOPs, this time again, the brick kiln owners present at the meeting were told that their old kilns must follow the modern zig-zag design so that air emissions could be controlled.

Setting October 20 deadline for following the design, they were told that in case of non-compliance their units would be shut down. However, those not using the zig-zag technology would not be allowed to function, they were told.

The step is aimed at preventing smog situation that plagues many parts of the province every winter.

Separately, the meeting headed by Dr Zafar Nasrullah, also gave warnings to the factories which were using processed water, to have their wastewater treated properly.

In specific the factories dumping wastewater in Hudyara Drain were mentioned, because the already polluted water coming from India via this drain is being further contaminated by these industries. All the polluted water is being dumped into the River Ravi through the 45km-long drain.

According to official data, around 800 factories dump their wastewater in the river, while those using processed water dump less. Besides the factories, the discharge of domestic wastewater by housing colonies was also causing severe water pollution.

In Lahore, more than 30 units using processed water are not treating their wastewater effectively, while the remaining 38 other factories (using processed water) have some kind of treatment at either the primary, secondary or tertiary stage.

At Sheikhupura the number of industrial units not treating wastewater is around 70 – again factories using processed water -- while 29 have some kind of treatment arrangements.

These industries have been warned that in case of non-compliance they will be punished under the Environment Act.

All the district environment officers, besides EPA Director Naseemur Rehman and EPD Director General Saeeda Malika were present.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2018