LAHORE: As part of its effort to protect the Ravi River from pollution, the Water and Sanitation Authority Wasa has signed an agreement with the European Agency for the establishment of a project management unit (PMU) for Babu Sabu Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Currently, the municipal and industrial wastewater from the provincial capital goes untreated into the Ravi, which has drastically reduced the oxygen levels necessary for stable aquatic life, threatening native fish species as well as the city’s underground water level.
A number of recent studies indicate that there is too little oxygen in the river to support aquatic life because over 3,000 cusecs of municipal sewage and toxic industrial effluents are pumped into the river from ten sewage drains and pumping stations and five industrial wastewater carrying drains.
Biological Official Demand (BOD) in river water is recommended to be 80 mg/l, but it varies from 150 mg/l to 630 mg/l in sewage drains and pumping stations.
Furthermore, toxic industrial waste was disposed of into the river via five drains with BOD values ranging between 50 mg/l and 450 mg/l.
The first wastewater treatment plant will be built on the Ravi River by Wasa. Environmental experts applauded Wasa’s initiative.
Over the past two decades, the Ravi River has become the dumping ground for untreated municipal as well as industrial sewage in Punjab, with a length of 422 miles and an average flow of 0.94 million acres of sewage each year.
As a result, several native fish species have disappeared, while the underground water level of nearby cities and other aquatic life are being threatened.
Among the drains that disposed of untreated municipal or industrial waste were Mehmood Booti Drain, Sukh Naher Drain, Shad Bagh Drain, Shahdara Town Babu Sabu Drain, Pumping Station, Gulshan-e-Ravi Drain, Furakhabad Drain, Budha Ravi, Main Out Fall Drain, Forest Colony Pumping Station, and Hudiyara Drain.
As part of the funding plan, Wasa MD Ghafran Ahmed said six wastewater treatment plants would be constructed within the agency’s jurisdiction. A WWTP will be established in Babu Sabu first, he said.
For the establishment of the Babu Sabu Wastewater Treatment Plant, France will provide a grant of 0.3 million Euros.
Wasa and Philip Steinmetz, Country Director of the European Agency, recently signed an agreement for grant financing, and Dr Kazim Niaz, Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Philip Steinmetz, Country Director of the European Agency, also signed the agreement.
As a result of this grant, Wasa will be able to prepare and implement the Waste Water Treatment Plant project in Lahore with the assistance of the European Agency.
There are 170 MGD of wastewater that will be treated at Babu Sabu Waste Water Treatment Plant and discharged into Ravi River, according to WASA’s Managing Director.
MD spoke to The News about the issue and said the project would help eliminate environmental pollution. It was announced some months back by the European Union (EU) that a grant was to be made available for the establishment of a treatment plant for waste water in Babu Sabu.
An EU delegation visited Wasa head office to learn about the project and approve the grant for the establishment of the PMU after the MD presented the project to them.
According to him, Babu Sabu Waste Water Treatment Plant was the third out of the six large-scale WWTPs planned by Wasa for treating wastewater from Lahore so that there would not be any environmental consequences resulting from the disposal of untreated wastewater into the river.
With a capacity of 174 MGD, Babu Sabu Waste Water Treatment Plant was the largest of the six WWTPs planned for Lahore. It was being reviewed by French consultants in terms of design, costing, and phasing.
Wasa will recruit PMU experts in the next two months and seek approval from competent forums after designing and estimating the project, he revealed. Loan signing and execution will follow.
