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Abstract

For over two decades the villagers living on the banks of River Kabul have been complaining about pollution. The complaints are because of the increasing and obvious signs of pollution, including periodic fish kills. The river has also been blamed for a high prevalence of skin diseases in humans, as well as maladies in livestock.Some people have complained of reduced crop yield in fields irrigated with water polluted by industrial effluents.These complaints were taken serious by the scientific community and the investigations confirmed the presence of pollutants in the stretches of the river. The river does, however, have a high assimilative capacity due to its physical and chemical characteristics. Also its turbulence encourages arelatively quick re-oxygenation after receiving the pollutants which cause high biological and chemical oxygen demand. However this does not remove the threats posed to the aquatic ecosystem and to fish and human beings in particular.The current study being initiated with the view to identify the hot spot from pollution point of view in River Kabul wherein municipal sewerage and industrial effluent being entered without any treatment near Peshawar City.