PESHAWAR, Nov 16: The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) of the NWFP is planning to construct a compost plant and septic tanks in Mingora to save River Swat from pollution by sewerage and effluent of hotels. “We have asked owners of hotels in Mingora city to convene a meeting so that EPA could hold talks with them on the issue,” said provincial Director General EPA Hamad Agha. The EPA, while taking notice of declining water quality of river Swat, had served notices to 29 owners of hotels in Mingora city under section 16 of Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997 on Nov 14 and called a meeting of hotel owners.

During the meeting, the owners were informed that hotels were seriously polluting river Swat by directly discharging sewerage and effluents into it. The agency had also sent an inspection team which found that no hotel owner had set up a septic tank and was directly discharging sewerage into the river.

The compost plant, DG EPA said, would be constructed by hotel owners in which their kitchen waste would be processed. Similarly, septic tanks would save river from sewerage. A compost tank, he said, costs up to Rs250,000. He said the EPA had installed compost tanks in Batkhela, Chakdarra, Pabbi (Nowshera) and Bannu city.

At present, he said, the EPA was focusing only on Mingora and the plan would be extended, subsequently, to Behrain and Kalam where a number of hotels are located. Hamad Agha expressed the hope that people residing in Mingora would also construct septic tanks.—APP