“Do not drink water from that stream. It’s polluted,” shouted a local to children, who were rushing towards a water stream, flowing down a hill, in a remote corner of Murree city.

The local who had warned the children is a fruit seller. He pushed his point with the parents. Though the warning didn’t work and the children came back and the parents expressed their disapproval of the old man.

“We have been drinking water from this stream for a long time,” said the mother of one child and upon enquiry from the old man selling apples and peaches, she added that it was after more than five years that she was coming back to the same spot.

“That’s why you do not know the ground reality – the streams are no longer clean. They are all polluted with whatever you call it,” the old fruit seller said trying to evade further information. “There is evil in this water,” he further warned.

The evil he referred to is the mixture of human solid waste and human excreta in the natural streams, around Murree city, which is rapidly rising.

Though all the major cities of Pakistan are heavily polluted and the problem is multiplying, resulting in poor waste management.

However, in the context of Murree, the situation is more severe, due to the landscape and fragile ecosystem of the area.

Solid waste includes plastics, paper, textile, glass, metal and all sorts of garbage, along with organic wastes.

Starting from the urban part and going to the remoter parts of Murree — Bhurban road or Ayubia — one can see heaps of garbage along the slopes, facing the picnic spots.

But the worst part comes from the rise in the population of the Tehsil, especially around the city, where many high rise apartments and commercial buildings can be seen.

As a result, sewage waste carelessly flows down the hill, which eventually ends up in the natural streams.

The situation aggravated in the past decade due to rampant commercialisation in Murree, leading to massive construction activities.

“This was due to the ill-intentioned policies of the Musharraf regime, when building rules were relaxed. Previously one could not construct more than two storeys but now the limit has gone up to ten storeys,” complained Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, MNA from Murree.

He said that till 1999 only one NOC for a housing society was granted and that too by the interim government for Judicial Town.

After that scores of NOCs for housing societies have been granted.

“The Musharraf regime abolished Murree – Kahuta Development Authority (MKDA) which ensured that construction of buildings remain within the limits,” said Mr Khan.

The residents are upset too with the rising pollution and expressed surprise to see that the laws related to the Pakistan Environment Protection Act 1997 and the activities of Provincial Environment Protection Agencies were not visible in the area.

“The situation is getting so severe that we can observe the rise in scavengers, including wild boars, crows, dogs and mice and that is because of the increase in the garbage around the city,” said Shafqat Hussain Abbasi, President Murree Press Club.

He said that all solid waste and sewerage outflow is pushed towards the main water courses, which pass through the fertile and residential areas.

“The municipal administration is also at fault that they are dumping all the solid waste gathered from cantonment and Murree city at a place called ‘thanda jungle’ – now that place is turning into a barren wasteland,” he added.

Though, there is a ban on construction activities in Murree, since this government came to power, but the restriction is not physically visible and the Administrator of the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) Murree was not available to comment over the issue.

“Influential people are involved in construction in the area, which includes political personalities too,” said Shafqat Abbasi and added that recently even press club members had to join the protestors, to get a massive construction project stopped on Bhurban road.

However, MPA of the area Raja Fiaz Sarwar told Dawn that a master plan for proper sewerage and solid waste disposal in Murree had been submitted to the Chief Minister Punjab, which is likely to be implemented in the current fiscal year.