The River Ravi is a perennial river and is the smallest of the five main Eastern tributaries of the River Indus. The River Ravi rises from glacier fields of Himachal Pradesh, India, and ends in the River Chenab. The total length of River Ravi is 894 kilometres and it has a catchment area of 39,680 kilometres.
A Writ petition was submitted to the Green Bench of Lahore High Court (A bench formed by Chief Justice in High courts to hear all issues related to the environment) based on the issues of discharge of untreated municipal and industrial wastewater into the River Ravi. As a response to this writ petition, Lahore High Court made a Commission for reviving the ecology of River Ravi. The Commission is working under the chairmanship of Dr. Kauser A. Malik (HEC-Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology, Director, Research, Innovation & Commercialization (ORIC) FC College Lahore) and has members from the provincial Government Departments (WASA, EPD, Punjab), representatives from non-government organizations (Like WWF-Pakistan) and technical experts to find a solution for controlling pollution in River Ravi with some practical and feasible outcomes using indigenous technologies. WWF-Pakistan is the only NGO which is the member of this Commission. It also has offered Commission to take any kind of assistance when required. So Commission can use office of DG WWF-Pakistan when required instead of EPD Punjab head office.
The Commission has organized three meetings about the ecology of River Ravi and formed a sub-committee which visited different sites of treatment plants (NARC at Islamabad and WSP at Faisalabad) and submitted a report with recommendations for the treatment of wastewater of Lahore.
Commission endorsed the Sub-Committee report in its 3rd meeting and recommended to construct the constructed wetlands for the treatment of waste water of Lahore. An interim report was submitted in the LHC Green bench regarding the working and status of RRC by the Commission. Lahore High Court in the hearing of 7th Dec. 2012 ordered WASA to publicize the interim report by putting public notices in media for public comments on it before any decision. After the decision of the Lahore High Court, the Commission will make further strategy for future action plans. It will start working on the implementation of the treatment technologies, making discharge policies for Lahore in order to make the environment clean and conserving the ecology of the legendary River Ravi.