CHITRAL, Sept 30: Showing concern over river pollution in Chitral, a conservationist has said that high density pollutants in the town have endangered the Chitral River.

“The river is being used as a dumping place for all kinds of waste produced locally,” said Haider Ali, a conservationist working with a local NGO.

He told Dawn that the local government was least bothered to perform municipal duty and had no solid waste disposal strategy.

He said that the river was contaminated by human waste, solid waste and industrial waste. The problem got intensified with increase in population of the city, he added.

Mr Ali said that in the recent past a large number of motor workshops and service stations were set up on both sides of the river.

“Their effluents are directly drained into the river,” he added.

He termed the effluents of motor workshops extremely hazardous, saying that most of them were toxic in nature and insoluble in water. None of the motor mechanics bothered to make arrangement for the waste of their workshops, he added.

Mr Ali said that the waste of the slaughterhouse, run by tehsil municipal administration, was also directed into the river. The waste renders the whole environment stinking during the summer season.

The conservationist said that in utter violation of municipal rules, all owners of the buildings along the riverside directed sewerage lines into the river instead of digging a septic pit for the same.

Mr Ali said that the sewage of the nearby houses was also drained into the river as there was no proper sewerage system in the city. He said that the hotel owners and shopkeepers in the bazaar used no place to dump their effluents other than the river and they did it without any hindrance of fear of law.

Mr Ali said that the contaminated water of rive adversely affected the aquatic life. He said that there was no check on construction along the riverbank that posed another type of threat to the river. He proposed sensitisation of local population about the problem and strict implementation of municipal regulations regarding construction along the river and disposal of solid waste.