Ijaz Hussain, Political and Legal Dimensions of Indus Water Treaty (Book Reviews)

Of the many issues that the partition of India in 1947 did not address in time, and were left to worsen the relations between India and Pakistan, the issue of riparian rights was only next in importance to the issue of Kashmir. In many respects the two issues have direct bearing on each other as well, as some important rivers emanate from Indian-held Kashmir. As the time passes more and more historians are coming to the conclusion that the massacre at the time of partition, the uprooting of more than 12 million people from their native homes, horrendous violence against women, burning and looting, etc, all owe mainly to the colonial administration that failed to ensure peaceful transition to two independent countries. No less than a person than a former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, described the attitude of the then British government as the ‘biggest escape of human history’. In its urge to get rid of Indian responsibility, the government of Prime Minister Clement Atlee, showed extraordinary haste in relinquishing its responsibilities without ascertaining that the partition of a country of a subcontinental size would involve a huge amount of work. It required taking into consideration all administrative and security aspects so that the two countries could move along their independent journey as good neighbours. Unfortunately, the failure of the British government, both in London and, through its viceroy, in Delhi, left a number of issues unsettled, which the two independent countries have been trying to resolve for the last seven decades. Moreover, with the passage of time, new factors emerged which further complicated the original issues.

On-Site Waste Management and Industrial Symbiosis of Hayatabad Industrial Estate, Peshawar, Pakistan

Hayatabad Industrial Estate was established in 1963 with the objective to provide job opportunities and promote economic development. With the passage of time there was increase in industrial units with the increase in environmental impacts. The present study was conducted in Hayatabad Industrial estate during 2014-2017 with an attempt to study the Hayatabad industrial estate for industrial waste minimization through Industrial symbiosis and find out ways and means for mitigating its environmental impacts. For this purpose, the study was designed in three steps. First, the Sarhad Development Authority officials were interviewed to know about the operational and closed industrial units. Second, questionnaire survey was designed for the operational industries. In third step, wood based industries were identified and surveyed for waste minimization and industrial symbiosis. The record of Sarhad Development Authority (SDA) revealed that there are 372 industries out this 242 were functional. The interview and preliminary survey revealed that the industrial estate consists of two types of industries i-e small and large. Number of small industries were 126 out of which 22 (17%) were closed. While number of large industries were 246, out of this 36 (15%) industries were closed. The decrease in functional industries is attributed to various factors. Among these security threat, lack on incentives, energy crisis. Solid waste generation rate for the operational industries was 125,481 kg/day. Only 26% of the generated waste is re-used and 33% is re-cycled. A big percentage of 41% is discarded as waste. Fifty percent of the discarded waste is collected and disposed off properly. The disposed off waste was characterized. The solid waste consisted of wood (27%), paper (20%), glass/ceramics (16%), metals (16%), plastics (11%), rubber (6%), and sand/stones (5%). The characteristics of industrial effluents showed high level of contamination. Maximum contamination was observed in paper mill effluents. Most of the parameters such as Total Suspended Solids (823.4-836 mg/L), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (263-275 mg/L) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (526-550 mg/L) were above the level defined in Pak-NEQS. Simple treatment test was carried out for this industry revealed that a two-step sedimentation i-e gravitational settling and coagulation can remove TSS by 84%, BOD5 by 89% and COD by 86%. The recovered settled suspended load can be used as input in mold industry. It was observed that there was no proper routine system for handling/treatment of industrial discharges. Wood-based industries, selected for industrial symbiosis include match, chip-board, mold and paper. Their respective solid waste generation rates were 45-50 tons, 30-35 tons, 1.5-2 tons and 2-3 tons/day, respectively. This waste is inter-changeable but wood-waste is generally sold to outside and used as a fuel. If the wood-waste of match industry is used as an input in chip-board and paper industries, demand for fresh wood will be decreased by 10% and 90% in chip-board and paper industries, respectively. By using waste-wood of match industry as inputs in paper mill and chip-board industry, the energy of these industries decrease by 10% and 20% respectively. Due to lacking of industrial symbiosis, there is not only wastage of resource but contributes the pollution level also. It is therefore required to seek ways and means for efficient industrial symbiosis. For this purpose the SDA is required to divide the industrial estate into zones and place similar industry near to each other. In this way they may be able to exchange waste and raw materials. Keywords: industrial waste, coagulation, pollution control, waste recovery, re-use, re-cycling, waste exchange, waste management.