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II. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS OF UNSUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
[ II | II-A | II-B
| II-C | II-D
| II-E | II-F
| II-G | II-H |
II-I | II-J ]
B. Major brown or ambient environmental problems
[ B-1 | B-2 | B-3
| B-4 | B-5 | B-6
| B-7 ]
1. Water pollution
The major sources of water pollution in the province are industry, agriculture and municipal liquid and solid wastes. Municipal sewage is mixed with wastewater from industries located in or nearby the cities and then discharged into rivers, canals and other water bodies. Untreated industrial and municipal wastewater from the various industrial estates and urban centres is discharged into common drainage systems, ultimately polluting the rivers. Typical examples are the Swat and the Kabul rivers where domestic and industrial wastes are dumped from the cities of Mingora and Peshawar. IUCN and the government of NWFP are now formulating an action plan to clean up the Kabul and Swat rivers.
The Kabul River has become grossly polluted by untreated domestic/municipal and industrial waste discharges from Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan and other urban centres. Near Nowshera, untreated industrial waste from Aman Garh is dumped into the river, resulting in a gross deterioration of water quality. The industries that are mainly responsible for the discharge of effluents are tanneries and producers of paper, chemicals, insecticides, textiles, soap, pharmaceuticals and ghee. The dissolved oxygen level has been seriously depleted by organic waste discharges, spent sulphite liquor, spent mineral acids and oxidizable organic compounds. The dissolved oxygen level has been reported as returning to acceptable levels about 6 km downstream of Aman Garh, which indicates a high re-aeration coefficient for that stretch of river.
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