Lahore’s River Ravi Became Most Polluted in the world

Lahore’s River Ravi Became Most Polluted in the world

The Ravi River is a transboundary river crossing northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. It is one of six rivers of the Indus System in the Punjab region, Under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, the waters of the Ravi and two other rivers were allocated to India. Subsequently, the Indus Basin Project was developed in Pakistan, which transfers waters from the western rivers of the Indus system to replenish the Ravi. Many inter-basin water transfers, irrigation, hydropower, and multipurpose projects have been built in India.

 

Recently an international study upon the current polluted situation of rivers has been done in the University of York and published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US, under this case in which almost all the worlds rivers were considered, try to find the pharmaceutical pollution like paracetamol, nicotine, caffeine and epilepsy and diabetes drugs along with other industrial wastes.

More than 1,000 test sites in over 100 countries provided samples for the study. More than a quarter of the 258 rivers sampled had “active pharmaceutical ingredients” present at a level deemed unsafe for aquatic organisms. The researchers ranked rivers in Pakistan, Bolivia, and Ethiopia as the most polluted, while the best-ranked rivers were found in Iceland, Norway, and the Amazon rainforest.

 

According to environmentalist Afia Salam said the River Ravi had been turned into a drain with human and industrial wastes. “We have laws about dumping wastewater and industrial wastage but no law is being implemented in the country,” she said, “Also the current government is planning to build a city on the river basin [Ravi Riverfront Urban Develop­ment Project] and it would also increase pollution,” she regretted. Besides, she said, India was also creating problems for the Ravi by diverting the Hudiyara drain towards River Ravi.

The head of the research, Dr. John Wilkinson, BBC “Typically, what happens is, [when] we take these chemicals, they have some desired effects on us and then they leave our bodies”. “What we know now is that even the most modern efficient wastewater treatment plants aren’t completely capable of degrading these compounds before they end up in rivers or lakes,” he added.

In addition to that Asian development bank revealed in his recent report regarding ravi river that ravi  “serious threat to the health” of its basin’s residents. It read: “Widespread contamination means water-borne and water-washed (skin) diseases are common across all age groups. If nothing is done, [the] spread of disease will most likely get worse”.

IN recent talk Information Secretary of Lahore Conservation Society Dr Ajaz Anwar that under the Indus Water Treaty, india india use the clean water of the river and dump the west of chamical in the river. “We also have diverted untreated wastewater into the river besides dumping waste in and around the basin of the river,” he added.

But now a positivi hope has been seen after the brave initiative of Pakistan Primminister Imran Khan who started Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project and told in his recent vido message that  project would turn around the economy and benefit some 40 industries, offer hundreds of jobs and bring in much-needed foreign exchange. “Around $1.5 billion foreign investment has already reached Pakistan for this project,” he said.

According to the University of York, The highest mean cumulative concentration was observed in Lahore at 70.8 µg/L, with one sampling site reaching a maximum cumulative concentration of 189 µg/L,  Bolivia’s La Paz (68.9 µg/L mean, 297 µg/L maximum) and Ehiopia’s Addis Ababa (51.3 µg/L mean, 74.2 µg/L maximum).

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