ISLAMABAD: Residents of Rahimyar Khan, including children, gathered outside the National Press Club on Monday to protest the contamination of streams and groundwater by a sugar mill.

Abdul Qadir, a resident of Pararan Sharif, told the media that residents of slums near the sugar mill are suffering due to the disposal of waste water by the mill in a nearby stream.

`People are suffering from diseases because they drink that contaminated water.

Even underground water has been contaminated, but people have no choice but to drink the stinking water,` he said.

Mr Qadir said he has submitted applications in various offices and filed a writ petition in the Lahore High Court, but nothing has come of these efforts.

`Although the sugar mill has been directed to install a waste water treatment plant, to control smog, it has done nothing. The owner of the sugar mill is a federal minister, so no one takes action against him. On the other hand, our children have been suffering,` he said. Staff Reponer