MUZAFFARGARH, Oct 6: The Supreme Court has taken suo motu notice against the Kot Addu Power Company’s power plant administration for failing to control pollution it has been creating for long.
As it was established in Kot Addu in 1980s, the people hoped that it would bring about prosperity for them. But now they have been rudely awakened to the plant administration’s failure to improve it for public service. The apex court has taken notice the other day on a letter written by a citizen.
The letter highlights the damage being done by the power plant to the health of citizens. “Passing by the power plant area does one face a nauseating stink and the poisonous emissions immediately affect eyes”, it contended.
Sources told Dawn that it was not only the chimneys of the power plant that emitted gases and smoke, but the company also released untreated wastewater in Manorkot Sultan. This watercourse irrigates thousands of acres and in this way chemicals get their way into crops and vegetables. The cattle also consume this water and the chemicals get mixed in the milk.
Local doctors said gas emitted by the plant had caused several diseases among the people in the city and its surrounding areas. Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Ijaz Gurmani said he had no count of patients suffering from diseases because of inhalation of emissions by the Kapco plant, but the incidence was certainly alarming.
He said women and children were particularly hit as they complained of skin rashness, flu and chest diseases. He said the chemicals also affected eyesight of the people living in the vicinity of the Kot Addu power plant.
A visit to Basti Sindhi near the power plant revealed that the power company had pledged to carry out plantation and other community welfare projects, but it had not fulfill its commitment during the last two decades.
Imtiaz Husain, a medical store owner who resides in an area near the power plant, said odour emitting out of the plant chimneys had made their lives miserable.
He said many children in the locality had common complaints of allergies and flu; some of them had been diagnosed with TB.
The people alleged that there was no sulphur treatment plant in the company.
City Nazim Chaudhry Arif Nadeem said if such a power plant had been set up in the upper Punjab, there would be a visible change in the area. But here in Kot Addu the plant had brought about a change for the worse in the shape of pollution and diseases.
Kapco admin officer Rao Imran said environment teams visited the plant every year to check the level of pollution and they had always given them a clean chit. He said the company would soon execute the plantation plan.