Urban Sanitation; Constant Threat to the Citizens of Rawalpindi.

Environmental pollution is the most evident issue of 21^st century across the globe. Degradation of resources rise in temperature, rapid industrialization, unregulated urbanization, ailing quality of fresh water resources and contamination of resources are resulting in reckless degradation of finite resources. While the research across the globe is focusing of developing better and cleaner technologies; developing nations deal with another crucial issue i.e. Access to proper sanitation.

According to the Report on Stunting in Pakistan (2017) by Inter-Agency Regional Analysis Report, 1.9 million children are already stunted which is directly attributed to unhealthy environment for the children. The report on Impact of Clean Drinking and Sanitation on Water Borne Diseases in Pakistan (2018) by SDPI shows that urban zones show high prevalence of Diarrhea among children resulting in 31% among children with non-improved sanitation facilities.

Open drains are the biggest and evident source of pollution in densely populated areas of Pakistan. Drains carrying domestic waste water flow into nearby fresh water bodies resulting in water pollution. Similarly, livestock and agriculture waste are also added to the streams. Open drains are the continuous source of water contamination, proliferation of pathogenic and deadly diseases including epidemics of Dengue, Malaria, Diarrhoa, Typhoid and Cholera; contamination of food chains; decrease in soil productivity and recharge of ground water with the contaminated water. The continuous foul-smell, which is already a source of nuisance to the residents in the near-by areas, becomes unbearable during rainy season. All these issues can be prevented by improving the status of sanitation in the city.

Coagulation of open drains is the leading cause of urban flooding. Heavy rainfall in July 2018 lead to accumulation of water in the low-lying areas such as Dingi Khoi, Akalgarh, Dhok Ratta, Banni chowk, Murree Road, Satellite Town and many adjacent colonies. The worsened situation demanded installation of machines to drain water from many of those places. Lei Nullah, the natural stream flowing in the city of Rawalpindi was initially a clear water stream having many species of fish. However, this natural stream was converted into sewage by the urban sprawl in the Twin Cities; Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Many reports have been prepared to address the issue of open drains in urban and peri-urban areas of Pakistan have proposed to deal with the illegal encroachments around the drains however, he most important aspect waste management. Despite of functional waste collection system is Punjab, domestic dumping of solid waste and its poor management lead to coagulation of these drains. Worst conditions are witnessed each year after Eid-Ul-Adha.

 No Sewage Treatment Plants are present in Rawalpindi resulting in addition of more than 44 million gallons of untreated sewage and more than 1000 tons of solid waste (including garbage and construction waste are added to Lai Nullah each day. To address this issue, WASA has proposed the installation of six treatment plants Rawalpindi. Ideally these STPs should provide safe, sustainable and feasible technological solution to facilitate onsite treatment of running water, better infiltration and recycling. The illegal dumping of solid waste in Lai Nullah is still an unsolved mystery as no mitigation measures have been proposed for them.

The government of Pakistan needs to take strong and adequate actions to tackle this issue. Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) provided a vague outline regarding access to sanitation as basic human right. National Sanitation Policy was designed under MDG’s however that draft has not been updated in the last decade. Therefore, the most important step for the current government is to formulate an updated and bottom’s up approach policy under Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) as SDG 6.2 address access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for everyone.

The most crucial challenge for the current government is to allocate sufficient budgets for improving access to sanitation in the city. This quality can be improved by regular monitoring of the pollutants concentration in the sources. The best way to address this issue is to educate masses to develop perception of the public. Also, there is need of introduction of formal and informal sanitation programs to address the open drains and their consequences. Together we can ensure the quality of live of our future generations.  

Note: This article was originally published by "Pakistan Environmental Journalists" on September 14, 2018
http://envjournalists.com/index.php/2018/09/14/environmental-contamination-and-urbanization-the-alarming-future-of-human-health-and-resources/