PESHAWAR, Jan 2: The Kabul River has become a dumping place as the effluents of the industrial units, which are without any waste water treatment facilities, are disposed into it, an environmental survey revealed.

According to the survey of the Pakistan Council of Scientific Industrial Research Laboratories (PCSIR Labs), majority of the industrial units in the NWFP are situated within the watershed of the Kabul River.

A scientific officer at the PCSIR said that mostly industrial units within the watershed of the Kabul River were without treatment plants. Only two units, Pakistan Tobacco Company and Gadoon Industrial Estate, had their treatment plants, he added.

There are sugar mills, distilleries, edible oil (ghee) factories, textile mills, woollen mills, tanneries, paper and board mills, chemical and pharmaceutical factories, match factories and soap industries within the watershed of the Kabul River.

"Another survey report about the environmental degradation caused by these industrial units is going to be published this month", the scientific officer told Dawn. He said: "We conducted a survey in 1997 on the water quality of the Kabul River and found that the water was polluted with the industrial waste."

"There are around 54 fish species in the Kabul River and the polluted water is a threat to their lives by creating a suffocating environment", an environmentalist observed.

Kabul River water is mainly used for irrigation, watering livestock, washing, bathing and the disposal of effluents. The villagers living on the river's bank are also badly effected by the polluted water of the river. The common complains are skin diseases and maladies in the livestock.