While the cold Quetta wind gushed to Karachi this week to bring temperatures down, there were in parallel heated discussions taking place at the Karachi Registry of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The Supreme Court ordered the Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah along with ex-Mayor Karachi Mr. Mustafa Kamal to defend the finding of water pollution made public on Wednesday, 6th December 2017. The CM was ordered to inform the courts on what concrete steps and measures he is planning on taking to address the water pollution issue in Karachi and Sindh. PILAP feels strongly that this is a commendable pursuit by the honorable judiciary to help fix serious failures of the government.
The Honorable Courts gave similar remarks in an earlier hearing on Monday, 4th December 2017 when it took up the issue of the “Tanker Mafia” and lack of proper water supply in the city of Karachi.
Apparently, the Sindh administration was not giving proper attention to these issues which are chronic and a source of great hardships to the citizens of Karachi and Sindh. This lack of action on part of the Sindh government was highlighted recently in a report on Water Pollution submitted in July 2017 to the Supreme Court prepared under the supervision of the judicial commission. The statistics were very dire and showed negligence and an attitude of lack of ownership in regards to of urban water supply in Sindh especially Karachi, Hyderabad and Larkana. In addition, the pollution levels seen in these studies were alarming and the honorable judges were concerned about public health and provision of basic needs such as water.
PILAP has taken leadership in a similar case of water pollution in the River Ravi which passes through Lahore. PILAP had filed a petition in the Lahore High Court, which in turn was the reason that the “River Ravi Commission” was created by the Lahore High Court to monitor the construction of “Bioremediation Plants” to treat the wastewater/remove water pollution before entering riverbeds of the River Ravi. Our intention is to file a similar petition in Sindh High Court that would order the design of similar plants for Karachi as well as other areas of Pakistan to help reduce water pollution. Read on about the Discharge of Untreated Waste Water into River Ravi
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