WSSP says sewage treatment plant establishment delayed on CM orders

PESHAWAR: The Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP) on Thursday informed the Peshawar High Court that the establishment of a sewerage treatment plant for disposal of waste in the city was delayed due to chief minister’s direction.

He had asked department not to set up the plant on already hired area on the Ring Road due to opposition by a provincial minister.

“The WSSP had received chief minister’s direction on September 21, asking to leave the current site for establishment of the sewerage treatment plant,” WSSP legal advisor, Atif Ali Khan, informed a special ‘Green Bench’ comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ghazanfar Khan. It was hearing two identical writ petitions against the government to control pollution in the city.

He submitted that the chief minister issued the direction after receiving complaint from a provincial minister who had said that the treatment plant should not be established in this area.

Earlier, the WSSP had time and again sought time for establishment of the sewerage treatment plant, but the issue persists.

However, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) directed the Environmental Protection Agency director general to visit the waste dumping area in Peshawar.

He was asked to submit report as medical and surgical wastes of the city without sewerage treatment plant were causing environmental pollution which was injurious to public health.

The writ petitions were filed by two lawyers Shoaib A Jally and Malik Misraf. They sought directions for the authorities concerned to resolve the issue of waste and pollution on emergency basis in the city.

The petitioner said as per the World Health Organization report, Peshawar had become the second most polluted city in the world.

During hearing, Malik Misraf provided photographs of the waste dumped in Afridi Ghari at Gulbahar No 5 on the Ring Road in the city.

He submitted that the respondents including hospitals, Town-1 administration, WSSP and other departments were dumping the city’s waste in the nearby lands with their houses that endanger the life of the petitioner’s family and other thousands inhabitants.

The petitioner said the Local Government Department had acquired the land for setting up a sewerage treatment plant, but failed to do the needful.

He believed the respondents were throwing over 100 tonnes of garbage, surgical materials, including intoxicating and hazardous materials which released toxic gases.

“The act of the respondents while dumping different surgical materials within the limits of Town-1, a thickly populated area, is against the law, Constitution, public health policies and universally recognized fundamental rights of the citizens,” the petitioner said.

He added that in the prevailing scenario when diseases such as dengue fever are there, the dumping offers a nursery/breeding place for such germs.

The court fixed October 12 for next hearing of the case.