A clean-up drive at Rawal Lake on World Environment Day exposed serious pollution concerns after hazardous waste, including discarded syringes, hospital material, and large amounts of plastic, was found along the shoreline. The campaign was led by the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency in collaboration with Nestle Pakistan and hosted by the Punjab government’s Small Dams Department as part of Environment Week activities.

The campaign was led by the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency in collaboration with Nestle Pakistan and hosted by the Punjab government’s Small Dams Department as part of Environment Week activities.

Officials said the discovery highlighted the scale of pollution threatening Rawal Lake, which remains one of the capital’s key water reservoirs as well as a major recreational site.

Volunteers, students from schools and universities, civil society groups, and members of the local community took part in the drive, collecting waste from the lake’s surroundings and the shoreline.

The campaign focused not only on removing litter but also on drawing attention to the dangers posed by poor medical waste disposal, plastic pollution in freshwater bodies, and the growing risk to natural habitats.

Pak-EPA said frequent littering and contamination at Rawal Lake had made such intervention necessary for both environmental protection and public health.

Director General Pak-EPA Syed Abrar Hussain, who led the event, said the presence of hospital waste and plastics in the lake should serve as a warning and stressed the need to turn such efforts into regular public habits rather than one-off activities.

The clean-up drive was held under this year’s World Environment Day theme, “Inspired by Nature, for Climate, for our future.”

Separately, Senator Sherry Rehman said Pakistan’s environmental crisis was no longer a distant threat but an active challenge affecting public health, food systems, water security, and the wider economy.

She warned that Pakistan remained among the countries most vulnerable to climate change and said the cost of inaction was continuing to rise as environmental pressures increasingly disrupted lives and livelihoods across the country.

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