A human tragedy is in the making as thousands of people, residing near illegally established steel and textile factories at Kala Shah Kaku, some miles away from Thokar Niaz Baig, are fast ailing with life-threatening diseases after being exposed to tonnes of toxic smoke and contaminated water pumped up by such mushroom industries, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The looming crisis resembles greatly with the horrendous epidemic that broke out in Faisalabad some years ago killing many as drinking water got contaminated with untreated water discharged by textile tanneries.
Most residents and workers of such factories, set up in areas declared undesignated by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), are prone to cancer and lung-related diseases. Private and public clinics and health units are also registering cases of human infectious diseases including typhoid, intestinal parasites and diarrhoea caused by bacteria, parasites and viruses.
According to the World Health Organization, 2.4 million people die each year from causes directly attributable to air pollution. According to the report titled “Pakistan’s Water at Risk” released by the World Wide Fund, approximately 116,013 children under the age of five in Pakistan die each year because of diarrhea caused by contaminated water. A study of the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) revealed that the water quality problems were caused by seeping of hazardous industrial wastes including persistent toxic synthetic organic chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides, municipal wastes and untreated sewage water into the natural water bodies. It said high arsenic content was found in some samples collected from eight cities including Sheikhupura situated close to Kala Shah Kaku where illegal industry is booming unchecked.
The unfortunate locality is famously marked by vast campuses of educational institutions including the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Government College University (GCU), Punjab University (PU), University of Health Sciences (UHS), Punjab Internet City, Directorate of Floriculturist, Rice Research Institute (RRI) and another top national institution. Faculty members, students and researchers are also exposed to high levels of air and water pollution discharged by unauthorised factories.
The factories are also taking their toll on scientific equipment and instruments placed at the UET, GCU and UHS labs by emitting gases, including acidic aerosol, black carbon, sulphates, chlorides and soot deposition cause corrosion of metallic surfaces.
Mai Bashiran, a resident of Shamkey adjacent to factories, shared her ordeal and said having inhaled toxic smoke over the last one year, she had become a cancer patient. “Whenever my health condition worsens, I shift to my sister’s house in Sheikhupura for three or four months and return with some improvement,” she lamented.
Sughran Bibi said that her children were often suffering from water-related diseases due to drinking brackish water being supplied by the local administration. “Even if one sleeps indoors wearing white clothes, he will get clothes blackened with a splash of black spots, which shows the level of smoke concentration in air,” Zahir Sial, working in one of the factories said.
The factories are situated on land rich with rice crop especially Basmati. Presently, rice, an important food and cash crop, is the third largest crop of Pakistan after wheat and cotton. An official of the agriculture department said that the environment department should wake up before air and water pollution caused by factories ruined the golden agri land.
A senior official of the Punjab Environment Protection Department (EPD) told Pakistan Today that the department knew the awful situation that could trigger massive casualties, if appropriate action was delayed. But the EPD’s hands were tied as factories owners had strong links with influential traders and politicians even parliamentarians. The effected area is located in vicinity of M-2 Motorway that starts from Thokar Niaz Baig and connects Lahore with Islamabad. Commuters are also suffering the devastated effects caused by the unauthorised factories that are churning out mounds of smoke and untreated chemicals directly in underground water and through sewage lines, he added.
According to data available with Pakistan Today, factories including Ali Steel Industry, Daniyal & Aafaq Steel Industry, Kareem Steel Industry, Liaqat Steel Industry, Tariq Sons Steel Industry, Bashir Sons Steel Industry, Noorani Steel Industry and a textile mill owned by Haji Shukardin have been established without EPA’s approval and caused air and water pollution putting at risk lives of people living in Amanpura, Shamkey, Dittpura and Saleem Kot.
The factories emit acidifying gases such as sulphur oxide and dioxide, carbon monoxide and dioxide, nitrogen oxide into the air. During precipitation, if situation gets out of control, rainwater dissolves these gases, lowering the pH level and becoming acid rain. “Acid rain reduces fish population, adversely affecting the ecosystem. Acid rain also damages trees and forests by harming their leaves, limiting available nutrients and exposing them to toxic substances slowly released from the soil,” environmentalist Muhammad Shahid said. He said that acid rain took a toll on human health. Many scientific studies had identified a connection between acid rain, increased illnesses and early death from heart and lung disorders, such as asthma and bronchitis.
