BUNER: Water pollution has become a major problem in the district because of mushroom growth of marble factories using a bulk of groundwater and polluting water bodies.

To raise awareness of the issue, ‘water conference’ is scheduled to be held on Friday here at Fateh Shaheed Memorial Hall in Daggar.

Special magistrate on marble industries and marble mining, Mr Hamad, told this scribe that almost all key stakeholders, including secretary relief and rehabilitation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, special secretary environment, director general Environmental Protection Agency, MNA Sher Akbar Khan, MPAs, DG PDMA, DPO, ACs, heads of line departments in Buner and all TMOs, would be invited to the conference.

Mr Hamad said that during a visit he had observed that marble factories were not following Standard Operating Procedures for disposal of marble polluted water and solid waste. He said that presently all of the waste was drained into a running water stream, which must be stopped.

He said that the stream was giving a milky look due to release of pollutants by the marble factories. He said that the stream water was so polluted that it could not be even used for irrigation purpose.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2019