Buner marble factories taking toll on locals

PESHAWAR – Not only contaminating the area’s potable water, marble factories in the residential areas of Buner district are also a cause of the residents’ psychological and physical diseases.
Suffocated by the factories, the residents told Pakistan Today that huge boulders were transported through the narrow streets of the residential area and could cause accidents, while the yelling of workers and the grinding of stone and the dust produced made them anxious and was also causing chest infections.
“I have become a psychiatric patient and my doctor has asked me to not to live in a noisy area. I do not know what to do since there are marble factories all around my neighbourhood,” Javed, a resident of Towarsak village where most the marble factories are located, told Pakistan Today. Another villager said that influential people had established their factories in a residential area in direct violation of human rights but the government was oblivious, adding that these factories were discharging polluted water into their pond which was for irrigation and for the animals and the land could also become infertile. These factories were also a major reason of power cuts in the area, he said, adding that the local grid can only supply 66kv electricity, which was merely sufficient for the domestic use. The residents demanded that the factories be shifted to industrial area, adding that the district was producing 68 percent of the country’s marble but the government was not doing anything for the wellbeing of the locals.