PESHAWAR, Oct 7: The Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) has proposed waste water treatment plants to be set up at vehicle service stations.

Automobile service stations use potable water for car wash which goes waste.

“The waste water at service stations can be recycled to get sparkle-clear water which can be reused for car wash,” said project leader Dr Abdur Rehman.

The PCSIR plans to start a pilot project at a carwash station in the Tehkal area of Peshawar at a cost of Rs15,000.

The waste water of service stations has only one per cent waste, including mud, grease, oil, sand and detergents.

“Others can follow the example as this technology is cheap and easy to install,” said Mumtaz Khan, a scientist at the PCSIR.

Service stations are an unnoticed and silent industry which is heavily contributing to environmental degradation by polluting fresh water, Mr Khan said.

About 3 billion litres of fresh water is annually wasted in Pakistan which could be used by 666,000 people for drinking purposes. A person on average consumes 150 litre of water a day.

Almost 210 million litre of water is monthly wasted in Peshawar city when a person washes his car once a month. There are about 200 service stations in Peshawar only and every station wastes about 16,000 litre of water a day.

The proposal has been sent to the department concerned so that plants could be commercialized and installed on every service station, said Dr Rehman. The plants would recycle waste water, to be reused for carwash.

With demand for fresh water increasing, such plants will help reduce the pollution and wastage of potable water.