Daily Times

Littering is emerging as an immense problem in our northern areas. Plastic water bottles, wrappers of chips, toffees, chocolates, and leftovers are busy playing havoc on nature.

Our rivers were once the best source of drinking water but sadly, not today.

After the development of road infrastructure, Kaghan/Naran, Babusar Top, Gilgit, Hunza, Nagar, Khunjrab Pass, and Kashmir are now within the reach of a common man and people rush towards these areas from June to September. Just imagine, around three million people have visited our northern areas in August after the lifting of lockdown. People have rushed to these areas without any planning. Moreover, Kashmir’s Neelam valley is also an easy task to visit. All our touristic spots are receiving tons of litter in just three months of summer. So all mentioned areas are under littering and sewerage threat.

Both littering and sewerage are a great threat to our environment because neither our provincial governments nor local people ever thought about this swarming menace. Every hotel and camping site throws its sewerage line into a nearby stream or river. For example, no hotels in Naran use septic underground tanks for their sewerage. All drainage pipes end up in River Kanhar (a branch river of River Jehlum). So Jehlum River has polluted water.

Moreover, littering is also increasing side by side. Every visitor of northern areas loves to eat chicken karahi and nobody asks hotelwalas where they dispose of flesh and intestines (including chopped heads of chicken. All are thrown into Kanhar River. Just imagine, we have a market at the brink of Lake Saiful Maluk (a graveyard is also developed at that brink). Moreover, a hotel is constructed at the brink of Saiful Maluk. Time is coming when there will be only hotels all around the Saiful Maluk Lake.

Sill nobody knows how much litter Saiful Maluk is carrying.

The government of Punjab still doesn’t know how to dispose of Murree’s litter because burning it is not a solution.

Let us come towards Babusar Top, which is situated at an altitude of 13700 feet and we have to eat only pakoras at this height. In other words, one of the world’s highest pakora points is at Babusar Top (can be added in Guinness World Record).

Babusar Top should be cleaned and cleared for photography only. All pakora shops should be developed below the Babusar Top (Kaghan side or Chilas side) and there should be a chairlift to reach the viewpoint from where Nangabart is quite visible. By adding a chair lift, the government can generate reasonable revenue from this Babusar Top. The same sewerage issue is also polluting this scenic area.

The same sanitation situation exists at Khunjerab Pass (one of the world’s highest passes) where visitors’ frequency is thousands per day in peak season.

I am not discussing Murree because that is now a big city of Punjab where the same issues of sanitation, sewerage, and littering are exits. Regarding littering, Murree and Kaghan’s valleys are uncontrollable now.

The government of Punjab still doesn’t know how to dispose of Murree’s litter because burning it is not a solution as in some areas people are bound to burn instead of recycling it.

Our northern areas’ cities like Gilgit and Hunza are expanded like big cities so have civic increasing problems of parking.

1: Ban throwing diapers, a big menace to the environment.

2: To stop deforestation, stop developing cities in northern areas, promote fiberglass tents only.

3: Ban eatables pack in plastic wrappers.

4: Ban cold drinks in plastic bottles. Allow only dispensers with food-grade paper glasses. People must carry their plastic refillable bottles or thermoses

5. Provide re-usable bottles for drinking water and cold drinks (like army personnel).

6: Establish fixed sale points and provide every visitor a medium-sized vast bag, which should be received at different points full of plastic waste.

7: Bound hotel managements to install septic tanks in their hotels and separate washbasins from WCs or government must develop a huge WC separate from the rivers as is built in Fairy Meadows, Gilgit Baltistan.

8: Government must start an anti-littering campaign on radio-TV channels.

9: Impose a heavy fine on littering and spitting.

10: Ban garbage burning in northern areas, which are done by locals every day as they don’t have other solutions provided by the local governments including Kashmir.

The writer is Senior Sub Editor, Inchage (Readers Column, Daily Times), and a veteran hiker.