Rawal Lake water potable, SC told

ISLAMABAD - Special Secretary Cabinet Division, DG Environment Protect Agency, and Managing Director WASA confirmed to the Supreme Court on Tuesday that water from Rawal Lake for residents of city and cantonment areas of Rawalpindi is clean and free from contamination.The officials submitted a written and signed statement in this regard before the Court after the chief justice inquired from them about the pollution free water from Rawal Lake. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heading a three-member bench said if any case of contamination cropped up in future, action would be taken against them.During the proceeding, on a query of the Court, Special Secretary Cabinet Division Shahidullah Baig said water from Rawal Lake is clean enough and he is ready to drink it. “Yes I am ready and satisfied to drink tap water provided to Rawalpindi citizens”, replied Shahid Ullah Baig the secretary when Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed of a three-member bench asked whether he would dare drink tap water provided to the residents of cantonment areas of Rawalpindi on Tuesday. The court disposed of the suo moto notice case after Baig, Director General Environment Protect Agency Asif Shujah and Managing Director WASA Raja Shaukat Mehmood submitted a statement maintaining that the water of Rawal Lake was fit for human consumption and there was no contamination.It was in June last year that the SC concluded the hearings in the case after the environment agencies of the federal government and Punjab government certified that flow of waste into the lake had been checked. The apex court however continued with the case as far as its monotiring is concerned and asked for periodical updates about the proposed measures to stop flow of solid waste to the fresh water lake the major souce of water to the citizens of Rawalpindi.The environment protection agencies had proposed treatment plants to clean solid waste from water flowing into the lake, demarcation of the limits managed by Islamabad and Rawalpindi and carrying out action against the polluting housing socities and poultry farms. It was in early 2010 the apex court took notice of polluted water being provded to the millions of users in Rawalpindi as it was major source of water besides over 250 tubewells in the city. The administrations of the twin cities earlier got engaged in blame game about the causes of the pollution flowing into the lake before the SC.

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