Industrial waste: A threat to people’s lives

Keenjhar Lake had become poisonous due to hazardous chemical waste found in heavy quantity in the reservoirs which supply water to other cities, including Karachi. PHOTO: SARAH MUNIR

KARACHI: Some time back, it was investigated that hazardous sewage and industrial waste were risking lives. This was initially done in Punjab where the government had invested $20 million for pollution-free water treatment plants in southern parts through a UN development programme.

It was identified that the water in the reservoir was killing plants and animals in the area and severely affecting humans, through infectious diseases, causing blindness and severe burns on the body.

The provincial assembly was informed that Keenjhar Lake had become poisonous due to hazardous chemical waste found in heavy quantity in the reservoirs which supply water to other cities, including Karachi. In the short term, it will impact around three million people living beside the riverbank and in the long term it will affect over 20 million people in Karachi.

A water sanitation plant has been installed at a cost of Rs750 million at Keenjhar Jhimpir area. Apparently, it seems that raw water was seeping through the plant filters and mixing with the drinking water supply. An inquiry report was prepared but no action taken.

Anywhere else, this kind of high-profile matter related to threat to human lives through corporate negligence would emerge as a slap on the government’s face, leading to a swift remedy. Here, we are looking the other way round.

What the policymakers do not understand is that installing water treatment plants alone without ensuring electricity to run them will provide no solution, as people will end up drinking polluted lake water, with the killer poison of chemical waste already flowing in heavy quantities.

The bigger challenge is how to ensure that the reservoir is secured and that leaks in filters of those plants are plugged and the cost of corporate criminal negligence is recovered from the profiteers who have violated health and safety standards.

According to the World Health Organisation report for 2012, the water samples that were collected put the hazard risk at 2.3% as compared to WHO’s standard at 0.75%, indicating high risk. Today, the situation is posing a severe threat of death and disease among the people of Sindh. The only reason this matter came up for discussion in the assembly was because of its significant impact on the Karachi water supply and its reservoirs.

The Ministry of Environment, Environment Protection Agency, civil rights organisations and provincial government officials are silent on the issue.

In Karachi alone, over 275 million gallons of consumable water is illegally sold fetching an approximate Rs100 million a day, for which we pay Rs3,000-5,000 on average to the tanker mafia, that itself further generates Rs10.4 million for the black economy. This further complicates the issue of providing safe and drinkable water to the citizens, both in urban and rural localities.

Had it not been the Karachi impact, the poor people of Sindh would have continued to suffer from dangerous skin and stomach diseases, some of them could not be cured.

Water pollution is a crime across most of the developed world and a notice must be taken to ensure we are safe and secure and to avoid the possible critical risk to the nation.

The writer comments on international relations and public policy