A treatment plant has been constructed at Sea View which is operational as sewage and industrial waste is being treated before it is disposed of into the sea, the Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) told the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Saturday.
Filing a compliance report on a petition against dumping of sewage and industrial waste into the sea, CBC officials submitted that the cantonment board was not dumping any solid waste and garbage into the sea.
They submitted that the Defence Housing Authority had constructed a sewage treatment plant at Qublai Khan with a capacity of 2 million gallons per day (MGD) while the current flow was 0.40 MGD.
The SHC was informed that the CBC was going to complete a sewerage line by March 31 in order to utilise the treatment plant to its maximum capacity and ultimately the Arabian Sea would take treated water to the tune of 1.90 MGD.
The CBC said that apart from the Qublai Khan STP, DHA was already maintaining another treatment plant at the Golf Club having a capacity of 1 MGD.
Regarding dumping of solid waste, the cantonment board said that 250 to 400 tonnes per day were being transferred to a designated place by the Sindh government and it was paying cost to the provincial government for its further disposal at the dumping site.
A division bench of the high court headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi took the report on record and directed the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency to ensure appearance of their officials before the court on the next hearing.
The petitioners, World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan), Citizens for Better Environment (Shehri – CBE), Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), and others had approached the high court seeking an injunction against the release of industrial waste and untreated sewage into the sea.
The petitioners submitted that Karachi was blessed with a coastline which had for over decades attracted tourists, traders and fishermen. They expressed concerns over the actions and attitude of the metropolis’ civic agencies that were seriously harming the city’s environment, specifically its coastline.
It was also submitted in the petition that flow of industrial waste and sewage was carried out openly and unconcealed, due to which the sea was getting contaminated and the entire area was enveloped by an unbearable stench. The petitioners termed the situation an infringement of the fundamental rights of the citizens of Karachi.
They feared that such an untoward situation had exposed beach visitors to serious health risks as sewage and industrial waste caused various diseases and medical conditions.
The petitioners’ counsels submitted that the acts and omissions of the civic agencies were not only destroying the marine life and disturbing the ecological balance but their oversight was also affecting the health of citizens who visited beach for recreation purposes.
The counsels maintained that locals living near the beaches commonly found corpses of endangered green turtles and other cetaceans that had died due to water pollution.
They requested the high court to direct the civic agencies to take steps for cleanliness of the beaches and ensure that sewage and industrial waste was not discharged into the sea.