Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A Bio-Remediation system installed on ‘nullah’ passing through rose and jasmine garden for treatment of wastewater to valued water has turned into an ugliest place due to its complete failure.

Constant stay of water without treatment in already constructed ponds to refine the wastewater create more pollution and smell in the park instead of providing useable water for agricultural purposes.

It was envisioned at the launch of this project that the phase-wise completion of this project will bring significant `improvement in environmental conditions in capital city, but nothing could be achieved except spending public money on this project.

Now, both the organisation are shifting responsibility of failure on each other and nobody is willing to save run this system, which was initiated with high optimism by then management of Capital Development Authority (CDA).

Bio-Remediation is a waste management technique that involves the use of organisms to neutralize pollutants from a contaminated site.

The work in the first phase was commenced in ‘nullahs’ passing through Rose and Jasmine Garden in May, 2014. It was planned to plant aquatic plants capable of diluting pollution in the nullahs passing through Rose and Jasmine Garden. The water flowing through these nullahs contains toxic elements. To eliminate these toxic elements 10 ponds were constructed.

The water rich in toxic materials was supposed to be treated in these ponds through aquatic plants and after making it toxic free, the water was to pour into nullahs again whereas the bad smell of water was also expected to be eliminated. It was planned as per project that the treated water will be used for agriculture purposes.

But unfortunately the whole project becomes useless instead of the development of ponds as nobody in CDA and National Agriculture Research Council (NARC) are willing to take the responsibility to run this project.

Currently, pounds are available but no aquatic plants are being planted. Resultantly, the smell of water has been increased due to constant sty of water in these ponds.

When contacted the Director General Environment CDA Shaikh Suleman has told The Daily Times: “We had just provided the space and it was not our responsibility to operate the project as we don’t have the expertise in this field.”

“It is the duty of NARC to operate and test the quality of water before and after the Bio-Remediation”, he added.

However, the Director National Institute of Bio-Remediation NARC Dr. Yousaf Riaz was contacted several times but he was unavailable to comment.

“The process of Bio-Remediation is cheap and cost effective as compared to commonly used conventional physical and chemical methods of treatment of domestic and industrial wastewater, but we did not maintain this project which is unfortunate and higher ups of civic body needs to intervene and save this project”, an officer of Environment Wing commented on the condition of anonymity.

Published in Daily Times, July 6^th , 2017.