Kurri residents welcome halt to landfill project

  • 31/07/2008

  • Daily Times (Pakistan)

The residents of Kurri and adjoining villages on Wednesday welcomed the orders of Islamabad High Court (IHC), which stayed the execution of Kurri Landfill Project. "We are happy that Islamabad High Court (IHC) has stayed the execution of the project and served notices on Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman, chief commissioner and Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) director general,' Shabbir Abbasi, a resident of Maloot Village told Daily Times. At present, he said, the underground water is being supplied to many villages, including Chak Shahzad, through tube wells. He said so far the water was being used without filtration because of its good quality adding that a landfill in the area would seriously impact on its quality. He said it was criminal that the CDA approved the landfill in the area despite the fact that it was declared National Park in 1967-68. Quoting experts, Ahmed Shah, a resident of Riharh Village, said that Kuri was located on the fault lines and the CDA's contention that a thick plastic sheet would be placed at the base of the landfill to prevent the waste from seeping into the underground water channels carried no foundation because a broken piece of bottle would pierce through the sheet thus polluting the underground water channels. "We are happy that the IHC decision has saved us and our coming generations from drinking polluted water,' he said. Mohammad Safdar of Malpur, Arshad Hussain of Pind Baigwal, Haji Farooq of Maloot, and Ali Asghar of Chak Shehzad also expressed similar sentiments. Chief Justice Sardar Aslam Khan on Tuesday issued a stay order on a writ petition of Arshad Hussain, a resident of Baigwal Village, and issued notices to the departments concerned. The residents have been resisting the project since 2006. The project became controversial after environmental expert Dr Amir Haider Malik, appointed by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) at the request of CDA chairman, pointed out that the project would damage the ground water recharging zones. He also pointed out that the area was located nearby seismic fault lines. The CDA bosses claimed that Pak-EPA had approved the project. However, the agency's DG Asif Shuja Khan said that though the NOC was issued for the landfill, it was conditional. "Conditional NOC means that CDA can build the landfill only after addressing the reservations of the stakeholders,' Khan said. staff report