Environmental concerns in quake-hit region

Environmental activists have expressed grave concern over widespread pollution as a result of poor sanitation, inadequate solid waste management practices, degradation of forests and continuous landslides across parts of quake-devastated northern Pakistan. “The disposal of solid waste management should be accorded the highest priority since it’s not only giving way to serious health risks, but also polluting the environment in several other ways,” says an alert bulletin jointly released by the World Conservation Union, otherwise known as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the US-based international developmental agency CARE on Wednesday. The bulletin enlists a range of emerging and prevailing environmental issues, putting more pressure on already depleting natural resources in the region. Over 80,000 people were killed and more than 100,000 injured after the powerful quake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale ripped through Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistani-administered Kashmir on 8 October. In addition, over 3.5 million people were rendered homeless across the region. “The need for shelter and fuel for hundreds of thousands of affected people are endangering the very existence of the already dwindling forests in the region, ultimately further reducing the livelihoods options for the local people,” said the environmental bulletin. The agencies have also called for restricting the use of the timber stocks for local needs only and immediately checking the reported transportation of timber outside the earthquake-affected areas for more profitable marketing. In NWFP and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, there are over 500 emergency camps housing some 187,506 people, however, of the total only 30 settlements were planned, according to the report by the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Alone the Muzaffarabad district of Pakistani-administered Kashmir has some 34 emergency/transitional settlements sheltering around 50,000 quake survivors, according to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), of which only four were planned, with the rest having been established spontaneously as people sought assistance immediately after the quake, without proper sanitation and waste management services. Meanwhile, landslides caused by the earthquake have temporarily obstructed several water channels in the region. In a couple of locations in Muzaffarabad massive landslides have blocked the course of rivers creating two lakes across two valleys. “The up and downstream communities of this blockage are threatened by the situation, particularly if it rains heavily,” the leaflet said. Deposition of massive volumes of silt and sediments after the landslides fell into the rivers flowing through the affected region may further significantly increase the risk of silting of water reservoirs, warned the bulletin by environmental agencies. Of Pakistan’s three main dams, the already silted Mangla Dam is located along the River Jehlum running through Pakistani-administered Kashmir to Pakistan and the ongoing landslides may speed up the silting process further - reducing the life and capacity of this reservoir, the agencies noted.