KASUR, March 5: Cauldrons for melting animal fats near the water treatment plant project at Niaznagar Road have forced several residents to migrate to other areas.

Local factories have long been extracting oil from the fat of dead animals. For this purpose, heavy cauldrons are placed in the open, which emit a foul smell causing not only pollution but also various diseases.

Residents have repeatedly asked the district administration for the closure of this illegal business, but no serious effort has so far been made by the authorities concerned in this regard. Both the labour and environment departments are only playing the role of a silent spectator.

The people warn that they will take direct action if this illegal business is not checked because it has started playing havoc with the health of a large number of residents.

A tannery owner told Dawn on Thursday that the fat was extracted for manufacturing soaps in Kasur, Lahore, Faisalabad and some other districts.

Another person requesting anonymity said the business was going on with the connivance of police and the environment department. He said that citizens were suffering from TB, hepatitis and cancer because of polluted effluent of tanneries.

DCO Muhammad Hashim Tareen said that millions of rupees were needed to provide clean drinking water to citizens. He said the district government did not have the required funds for the purpose. However, the DCO said that he had taken up the matter with the federal and provincial governments as well as a donor agency, JICA.

He also came clean that the fat extraction business was illegal and said that he had directed the departments concerned to probe into the matter and report to him at the earliest.