Solid waste in Ravi leads to large scale birds’ migration

Environment degradation has led to migration of scavenger birds from river Ravi, Pakistan Today has learnt. These birds, which were seen in large numbers at dumping sites on the river bank would eat the waste keeping the environment healthy.
Migratory birds are excellent indicators of the state of our environment. Like many other species, their migration patterns match their needs of resting, breeding and feeding sites. By acting as natural controls, birds help regulate pests by reducing populations of potentially harmful insects such as caterpillars, weevils, cutworms, beetles and flies. The impact of the continuous decline of birds from the city will have a disastrous effect on the environment and the natural process.
These birds, however, have migrated and left the city. There were about 212 species in 1965 which have decreased with time and at present, not even a single bird can be seen on the dumping sites.
River Ravi is a perennial river and unfortunately is being used to accumulate the waste of the entire metropolitan from industries as well as local households.
A writ petition was submitted to the Green Bench of Lahore High Court (A bench formed by Chief Justice in High Courts to hear all issues related to the environment) based on the issues of discharge of untreated municipal and industrial wastewater into Ravi.
As a response to this writ petition, Lahore High Court made a commission for reviving the ecology of the river. The commission is working under the chairmanship of Dr Kauser A Malik (HEC-Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology, Director, Research, Innovation & Commercialization (ORIC) FC College Lahore) and has members from the provincial government departments (WASA, EPD), representatives from non-government organisations (WWF-Pakistan) and technical experts, to find a solution for controlling pollution in Ravi and coming up with practical and feasible outcomes using indigenous technologies.
The commission has organised three meetings on the ecology of Ravi and formed a sub-committee which visited different sites of treatment plants (NARC at Islamabad and WSP at Faisalabad) and submitted a report with recommendations for the treatment of wastewater of Lahore.
Ahmad Rafay Alam, the secretary of the commission said, “Birds are important for the eco system and play a vital role in maintaining a healthy environment. We are going to construct a biodegradable forest on the river, which will also serve as a park for visitors”.
Local residents say voices of birds could be heard in the area more than 15 years ago and the sky used to be full of birds. Today, they claim there is a lot of smell in the area and an increase in diseases. Solid waste of the city, they allege, is the root cause of all these problems.