Lahore (Staff Report): The Punjab Food Authority has destroyed vegetables cultivated on 60 kanals with sewerage and untreated wastewater in Shahdra Town.
The provincial food watchdog officials conducted the raid following the directives of PFA Director General Capt (retd) Muhammad Usman to ensure supply of healthy and toxin-free vegetables in markets.
Usman said the operation would continue throughout Punjab against vegetables being irrigated with untreated wastewater. He said that chemically-treated vegetables are a source of hepatitis and other diseases for consumers and most of the farmers are cultivating crops using tube-well water as compared to the last year.
He said that WASA gave assurance of its full cooperation in this regard. WASA inspectors will monitor the use of sewerage water in fields. He said that farmers can cultivate only alternative and non-edible crops in the red zone areas like bamboos, flowers and indoor plants and use sewerage water for irrigating purposes.
He said that PFA teams had destroyed vegetables cultivated on 1,300 kanals using untreated wastewater in September.