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MULTAN, Jan 26: The Multan Municipal Corporation recognizes the inconvenience caused by the hide factories on Nawabpur Road but has been unable to shifting them out of the city.
There are 30 leather factories on the road. The tannery chemicals and waste are either stored close to the residential area or released in a nearby field.
Last year residents of Jalali Colony, Nawabpur Road, informed the MMC chief municipal officer, that the practice had contaminated ground water in the area. As a result, they said, there had been an outbreak of diseases of threat, lungs and stomach.
The MMC chief health officer said he could not confirm or challenge their finding. He admitted that tannery chemicals could be linked to some of the diseases. The tehsil municipal officer, too, declined comment on the same plea.
Residents said, in 1990, the then Multan mayor had directed the tanneries owners to treat their waste before disposal. Only the tanneries treating their effluents and making proper arrangements of dumping the sediments were to be allowed.
A couple of years later, following reports that the effluents had a heavy load of silt and tannery chemicals, the MMC again directed the tanneries to install treatment plants. Only one tannery installed a treatment plant.
On March 29, 1994, the assistant commissioner concerned ordered the tanneries to stop working within 15 days. Nearly eight years later, the tanneries and the problem persist.
LICENCE: The MMC licensing superintendent, Rahmat-ullah, said under the Punjab Local Government Ordinance, 1979, a tannery fell in the category of a “dangerous, offensive articles and trade.” It could not be started without an NOC.
When these plants were set up, he said, there had been no population in the area. He said 58 acres had later been earmarked near Muzzafarabad Colony for the plants.
He said the factory owners had resisted the move to shift their business away. For the last two years, he said, the MMC had refused to renew their licences. They, however, remained unmoved.
The matter has been taken up with the district Nazim. He has, however, deferred it until after the Gowala Colonies have been shifted outside the city.
A former president of the Pakistan Tanneries’ Association said the owners had been willing to shift outside the city provided the government could grant or guarantee loans to enable them to do so. A treatment plant, he said, cost about Rs3 million. Small tannery owners, he said, could not afford it.
