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Hudiara drain, a highly polluted tributary of the River Ravi flowing through India and Pakistan, will soon get its much needed revival as the World Wildlife Fund-Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan) and World Wildlife Fund-India (WWF-India) join hands to unload the water resource of filth and grime. |
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Two projects, both supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), are being carried out by WWF-India and WWF-Pakistan to clean the canal. The project's goal is to reduce the pollution load in the Hudiara drain by working with stakeholders and putting better management practices in place. The project initially calls for surveying the water quality in Hudiara drain.
WWF-Pakistan, which completed water quality monitoring in 2001, found the environmental health of the drain "highly unsatisfactory," and that the water is unfit for irrigation. It had high levels of heavy metals, was biologically contaminated, and was also contributing to groundwater pollution.
As the Hudiara drain originates in Punjab, India and enters Pakistan, WWF-Pakistan requested WWF-India to undertake the same water quality assessment in their part of the Hudiara to get a more complete picture of the canal's pollution levels. WWF-India is collaborating with the Guru Nanak Dev University in carrying out the pollution survey.
The findings of the India survey will be announced in 2006. Soon after, WWF will help formulate a joint pollution control strategy by Pakistan and India. Pakistan is now in the second phase of the project for cleaning the canal.
"There are around 100 industries located adjacent to the Hudiara drain on the 55-kilometre Indian side, so it is already quite toxic when it enters Pakistan," says Hania Aslam of WWF-Pakistan. "Then we have 112 small industries located next to the drain on our side as it travels 63 kilometers through the Punjab into the Ravi."
But this water is used for irrigation along the length of the canal. The villagers even use water from wells dug close to the drain, which are exposed to the pollution through seepage.
Untreated water, when used for irrigation, seeps into the soil and facilitates the entry of a number of pathogens into the food chain. "Vegetables grown with toxic water may cause diseases when used by the people un-cooked," says Hammad Naqi Khan, a WWF-Pakistan official.
Until about 30 years ago, the Hudiara used to be a storm water drain used for irrigation and domestic purposes, draining into the Ravi, and adding to the river's aquatic health. But this is no longer the case.
"The people living along the drain in Pakistan - especially in areas bordering India - are afflicted by the hazardous effects of the untreated water," Khan says.
"We have been facing this problem for the last 20 years. The pollution fluctuates according to the volume of the water," says Muhammad Jamil, a farmer in his sixties. Mian Mahboob, a local politician, even suspects that pathogens are being transmitted through cattle milk because buffaloes and cows drink from the drain too.
Experts say that many of these fears are not unfounded. "Cadmium, chromium and copper in chemical waste from factories located alongside the drain are making vegetables oversized. The heavy chemicals, all carcinogenic, eventually end up in the food chain," explains Aslam.
Villagers are aware of the high levels of pollution in the drain along the India-Pakistan border near the Pakistani city of Lahore, but the general awareness of pollution is low. Children play in the water while their cattle wallow in the drain.
"This water is okay," says Niaz Ali of the village Noorpur. "We use that water for the fields. It is good for our crops, makes them grow fast and we don't need fertilizer," he adds, referring to the dark sludge. "We have no other water so we don't have a choice. The tube well water is good water, but it is used only for drinking," he adds.
WWF-Pakistan has begun an awareness campaign to educate villagers about the dangers of using polluted water. It also has plans to provide industries with technical support for installing cost effective pollution control measures. WWF-India will undertake a similar campaign in the course of project implementation.
The clean up of Hudiara drain becomes significant not only for the preservation of the environment and sustaining the health and livelihoods of communities along the drain, but also for environmental peacekeeping. Hudiara falls under "international waters," and its clean up provides an opportunity to strengthen the peacekeeping efforts between India and Pakistan.
"This trans-boundary project could be an example of regional cooperation in South Asia," says Pakistani journalist Rina Saeed Khan. "With all the goodwill now surrounding Pakistan-India relations, Hudiara can be a symbol of all that can go right, once two neighbors decide to clean up their act together."
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