Environmental Issues in Chitral Town

If things do not change, Chitral town is going to be one of the most polluted towns in Pakistan. Chitral District is famous for its beautiful high mountains, glaciers, clean streams, and friendly people. During the summer season, tourists visit Chitral for its beauty, cool weather and historical sites. Unfortunately, Chitral town is becoming dirtier and stinker day by day. The three major causes of environmental damage in Chitral town come from excess garbage, raw sewage, and the presence of a car wash.

First of all, garbage is scattered all around the town. Plastic bags, bottles, and many other pollutants are thrown everywhere. There is no system to collect this garbage and bring it for recycling. As a result, the pile of debris goes up every day. As we know, cleanliness is important for our health, and it is also a part of our religion, but people make garbage and never think who will clean this up for them. But this is not the only problem.
In addition, raw sewage makes the town dirty. Unfortunately, Chitral town has no suitable plan for sewage disposal. A sewage system must be underground, but in Chitral both rain water and sewage from washrooms flow through open drainage systems. Because of scattered garbage around the town, the broken trenches overflow and dirty water flows onto the streets. Although it is terrible during the rainy season, but both community and district governments have no concerns about it. All this dirt goes into the Chitral River. However, this is not the only thing that damages the river.

Finally, many car washes in the town create pollution that goes into Chitral River as well. There is no special plan to make car washes environmentally friendly. Currently, they do not treat water before it goes into the river. Moreover, the dirty water contains oils, grease, and many other chemicals which are slowly poisoning the river as they enter it. A couple of people do their businesses, and they put polluted water into the river and create huge health issues both for humans, fish, and wildlife.
 

In short, Chitral faces environmental issues because of scattered garbage, poor drainage systems, and inefficient car washes. The piles of garbage make the town dirty and stinky. Within a few years, Chitral town will be full of garbage. Ultimately, tourists will no longer want to come to Chitral. The open drainage system brings all garbage into the river and makes the water polluted which increases the chance of sickness and disease. Car washes have been made just above the Chitral River, and put slow poison every day into the river. Chitral is a peaceful and lovely place to live, but who will answer these questions: Do we need a law to protect our environment? Who is responsible for this pollution and is there any solution to resolve the above issues? --Nazir Khan, Calgary Alberta Canada 10 Dec 2011

Comment 1

I read your article Environmental Issues in Chitral Town and i am really upset after seeing the issues out there. I am from chitral and in last year of my BS hons in Environmental science from Punjab University Lahore.I want to give my suggestion to mange these issues by public awareness and other ways like making the waste collections points or placing stationary containers for the garbage. Who will take all these steps? before the situation gets worse -- Nusrat Shaheen, Lahore 11 Dec 2011.

Comment 2

This is in further to Nazir Khan’s article with titled “Environmental Issues in Chitral Town”, where the learnt writer pointed out several environmental issues in Chitral town. The environmental issues (open drain sewage, solid wastes, vehicles’ wash liquid waste etc) in whole Chitral in general and in Chitral town in particular are going to worse day by day, if no reckonable measures implement by the concern authorities. The exact facts and figures about the current trends of these environmental issues need to be probe out by conducting intensive research studies.

It can only be possible when the student (like Nusrat Shaheen) and others studying in different universities choose district Chitral for their research study area. I don’t think that the data provided or published by Government and NGOs are precise, as they have their own interest of getting chunk of funds to run their earning shops. In Chitral you can find many interesting areas to do your research studies, as God Almighty bless us numerous natural resources in the form of Chitral river, alpine forest, various extinct wild species, geological resources etc.

The people of Chitral are only hope to protect our natural resources from illegal or unsustainable usage and to preserve our environment for a healthy life with the supports of our educated young generation. So, the new generation’s contributions in this noble cause will be highly appreciated. Moreover, Student wants to do research on Chitral river can get help from our recently published article and it can be access by Google browsing “assessment of seasonal variations in surface water quality of Chitral river, Pakistan”.
Shams Ali Baig PhD Scholar, Zhejiang University Hangzhou, China 12 Dec 2011.

Comment 3

Chitral- etymologically the word has been taken from the chitrali word CHETRAR, which means fields. But now it is really pathetic to see the situation here in Chitral. A few days ago I was passing through the main bazaar of Chitral that one of the shopkeeper threw empty pockets of juices and milk to the narrow water channel. When I asked not to do that he answered that all the shopkeepers are doing so. Again I agree with the writers that public awareness is really important for the eradication of the problem.

Secondly, the pollution problem in the DHQ hospital is at peak. Wastes contaminated with blood and tissue, separating these hazardous wastes from ordinary waste. Hospitals and doctors' offices must be especially careful with needles, scalpels, and glassware, called “sharps.” Pharmacies discard outdated and unused drugs; testing laboratories dispose of chemical wastes.

All the garbage and used medical material are burnt in front of the Operation Theatre. I request the Medical Superintendent of DHQ hospital to take immediate steps to solve the problem. -- Shahid Hussain, Zargandeh Chitral 12 Dec 2011.

Comment 4

I am thankful to all very educated and sincere writers for their nice suggestions. We can solve the environmental issues of Chitral by considering the following solutions.

First of all, it is the government’s responsibility to provide facilities to its public. It needs money to develop underground sewage system, hire employees, provide garbage trucks and put garbage bins around the town. The garbage should go away from the town and be dumped in a specific area safely. For this purpose, Chitral really needs outside expert (consultant) to solve this big internal issue. The government should make laws to protect the environment and give penalties for littering around the town. Moreover, the government should provide technical support for the car washes to make them environmentally friendly.

Secondly, the public should know their rights. We need a strong and honest leadership to create public awareness and put pressure on government to solve the issues. The public should pay the government to clean up their garbage and run the facility.

Last but not least, the media can help bring this issue to higher authorities through more public awareness to the problems. Specially, the pictures of open burning chemicals and other debris near operation room in DHQ hospital should go on the electronic media.

In short, environmental issues of Chitral town can be solved through a strong and honest leadership, community awareness and put pressure on government to solve it.-- Nazir Khan, Calgary Alberta, Canada 15 Dec 2011

Comment 5

I would like to thank and join my friends who have written on the subject. Three decades ago Chitral town used to have one of the most beautiful and serene environments, now the dumping of rubbish in many places, the scattered litter, the open sewage, unsafe slaughter house effluents, and mushroom growth of haphazard and ill planned buildings have made it an unsafe and ugly place to live.

The overall impact of this situation has made the town very much disease friendly. The most unsafe place is the DHQ hospital. The private rooms and washrooms are in a bad shape.

The hospital garbage is frequently seen lying around. The local administration of the hospital is helpless, one insider of the hospital disclosed that there were 24 positions of doctors vacant in the hospital alone. The frequent outage of electricity in the hospital is a curse.

Is it out of miracle or the expertise of doctors, many a patient survive surgery operation during the abrupt outages. When there is no light the children ward gives a pathetic look, you can see the lonely nurse hectically moving around the patients with mobile torch in her hand to lead her from one to the other patient. If God saves us, no one can kill us. -- Shah Karez, Chitral 16 Dec 2011

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