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Noisy, polluting cars, “black soup” from factories entering water bodies, piles of plastic bags around every locality, solid waste burning, improper water drainage during rainfall, the River Ravi turning into a sewer, a water sample from a household tap when tested against international standards coming back with the label “not fit for animal use”. You must have guessed which city we are talking about. Yes, it’s Lahore in Pakistan, a city of beautiful gardens, the core of culture, tradition and education.
Rapid urbanization and industrialization over the past couple of decades have resulted in the deteriorating quality of two basic necessities of citizens of Lahore: good air quality and safe drinking water.
Clean drinking water has become a rare commodity: Lahorites have all but forgotten the taste of pure and unpolluted water. The government acknowledges that 60% of infant deaths are caused by water-borne diseases every year. Every fifth citizen in Pakistan suffers from illness caused by pollution and 40% of urban deaths are caused by unsafe water. In addition to these problems, development schemes like road construction, electrification, setting up of industry and mega projects involving dams, oil and gas exploration not only cause environmental degradation but also uproot the nearby communities.
Human health is directly related to the quality of drinking water, yet national standards for it do not exist in Pakistan. Government departments and municipal agencies responsible for supplying water claim to follow World Health Organization guidelines, but this is largely theoretical due to a lack of quality monitoring and implementation practices throughout the country.
Major cities like Lahore dispose of their largely untreated sewage into irrigation systems (where the wastewater is reused), streams and rivers, without any consideration for the water body’s assimilative capacity. Consequently, not only does serious bacterial contamination result--threatening human health--but the organic load of the sewage seriously depletes the dissolved oxygen content of the receiving waters, causing unaesthetic conditions and making them unfit for fish.
All the polluted water channels in and around Lahore ultimately falls into the Ravi and according to the National Conservation Strategy, the untreated wastewater from Lahore has resulted in 5,000 fewer tons of fish production per year. Recently a study was conducted by WWF–Pakistan on the water quality monitoring of Hudiara, a transboundary water channel coming from India. It revealed that the villagers pumping water from the hand pumps installed along the banks of the drain have a high prevalence of water-borne diseases like dysentery and diarrhea; these are related to poor hygiene practices and especially due to drinking water that is contaminated with fecal bacteria. Residents of northern Lahore very rightly blame poor drinking water being supplied to them for the regular outbreak of water-borne diseases in the area.
Another polluted necessity of our lives is the air quality of Lahore which is deteriorating at an ever-increasing rate. The main costs of air pollution arise from its effects on human health. Smoke coming from the industrial units and vehicular emissions cause serious implications to the health of nearby communities.
Recently, Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with the assistance of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) carried out ambient air quality studies in three major cities, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad, to assess pollution levels in traffic-congested areas. The study revealed that the average amount of dust, smoke and haze in our cities were 6.4 times higher than WHO guidelines and 3.8 times higher than Japanese standards. The levels of sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide were found in excess of acceptable standards in some areas but the average levels were found below WHO guidelines. These high levels of pollution can make breathing difficult, especially for people with chronic respiratory problems.
According to a report by Federal EPA, Ministry of Environment in Pakistan, the number of road vehicles have jumped from 0.8 million to about 4.0 million within 20 years, showing an overall increase of more than 400%. 700,000 vehicles in Lahore are emitting 211 tons of atmospheric lead annually, which we inhale. Blood tests for lead levels have been conducted on traffic police personnel. They are becoming alarmingly high and its health hazards are imminent.
These terrifying facts and figures of pollution indicate the need for a proper study to determine the effects of pollution on society. An epidemiological study is carried out to determine the causes of disease and compare large populations living in different locations or following different lifestyles. It will provide statistics about a particular disease in a particular area. It will not only prepare basic groundwork in Pakistan for further studies in this field--as there is a serious lack of information regarding this subject--but also bring to light the problems that exist and the issues involved. They are intended to instigate the government into action through strict enforcement of laws and create awareness among citizens to take personal responsibility for protecting the environment.
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Hania Aslam
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