THE ignorance of citizens and unhealthy practices of the civic authorities are the prime reason for pollution of the Ravi River and the contamination of various aquifers, especially in and around Lahore. The media has played its role and has pointed out the pollution of the Ravi from time to time.
I remember a news item published in April 2008, reporting that the Hudiara drain brought a lot of pollution from the Indian Punjab. At the time the Chief Minister of Punjab was Mr Wattoo. There were photographs of him in the newspapers visiting a pumping station that was throwing sewage from various nullahs into River Ravi. To the best of my knowledge Lahore does not have any central sewage treatment plant. Adding raw sewage to any water channel is not an acceptable method anywhere these days.
It is regrettable that no concrete actionhas been taken on this important aspects of prevention of pollution into the water channels. In fact a number of colonies which have come up on the sides of the Lahore canal pump raw sewage into the canal. The same situation prevails in Faisalabad.
I urge the medical community to come together and explore avenues to lessen the burden of disease at the national level and also present a plan to the provincial governments on how to eliminate the hazards that threaten the health of the people.
I would like to end with a small suggestion to the corridors of power that the availability of safe drinking water is far more important to the citizens of a mega city than anything else.
