LAHORE: The officers of the Environment Protection Department (EPD) have been asked to coordinate with the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and the Ravi Urban Development Authority (Ruda) to speed up the construction of wastewater treatment plants at the earliest to save the groundwater from further contamination.

Environment Secretary Zahid Hussain gave the directions to the officers during a meeting here on Tuesday.

The secretary asked the officials to coordinate with the management of the Punjab Industrial Estate Management and Development for installation of an effluent treatment plant in the Sundar Industrial Estate and Quaid-i-Azam Industrial Estate.

The meeting was told that Pakistan was one of the water-stressed countries. Its per capita surface water availability was 5,260 cubic meters in 1951 which declined to around 1,000 cubic meters in 2020. It was also informed that wastewater treatment plants had been installed in about 57 industries of district Lahore.

The meeting was briefed that major industrial clusters are at Multan Road, Manga Mandi, Raiwind Road, Raiwind Road, Kattar Bund Road, Ferozepur Road, Hudiara Drain, Charrar Drain, Kahna Kacha Road and Farrukh Abbas Drain and Shahdara.

The wastewater of industries of these clusters is being disposed of into the river Ravi. Besides, untreated waste water of 11 municipal drains is also being discharged into the Ravi without treatment.

These drains include Hudiara Drain, Charrar Drain, Sattukatla, Shadbagh Drain, Gulshan-i-Ravi Drain, Shalimar Drain, Farrukhabad Drain, Forest Colony Drain, Outfall Drain, Babu Sabu Drain and Kattar Bund Road Drain. However, Wasa Lahore is striving for construction of the municipal waste water treatment plants. Seventy three hundred kanal land has been acquired at Sattukatla for the purpose.

Wasa is planning to construct five wastewater treatment plants under Ravi Urban Development Project to supply clean water to the new planned city.

These proposed wastewater treatment plants include North East-1 wastewater treatment plant on the Ring Road near Bhamma having capacity 165 cusecs, North East-2 wastewater treatment plant at Ring Road near Khokhar having capacity 215 cusecs, North West-1 plant at Shahdara near the Jahangir’s Tomb having capacity 20 cusecs, North West-2 plant outside Tara Garh Settlement having capacity 110 cusecs, Central-1 plant near Saggian Bypass having capacity 260 cusecs, Central-2 plant outside Gulshan-i-Ravi near Bund Road having capacity 115 cusecs, South East plant outside Shadiwal having capacity 425 cusecs.

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 16th, 2021