At a Glance Plastic Waste: A Journey down the Indus River Basin in Pakistan The Indus—12th largest Overview The Indus is known to be one of the most polluted This study represents the rst-of-its-kind on rivers in the world. Deteriorating water quality is a river in the world— is the tracking the types and quantities of plastic major threat to the ecological resources of the backbone of Pakistan's river. The three main sources of water quality issues waste in the Indus River and its tributaries in economy and ecology are (1) municipal wastewater discharges, (2) Pakistan. and makes up the largest industrial wastewater discharges, (3) return- contiguous surface water agriculture ows. A so-far less scrutinized and under- Fieldwork was conducted at nine sites on the studied aspect is pollution from unmanaged or irrigation system in the poorly managed solid waste management. Indus River and its tributaries, spanning 2,032 km world. across the country. This study seeks to answer 4 questions: 1 2 3 4 What is the origin of Where does plastic waste Which factors drive the Howmuch information can plastic waste in in the Indus River high plastic be gathered regarding the Indus and what ultimately go? load carried by plastic pollution in the is its composition? the Indus? Indus River Basin? Field survey methodology Drone imagery Active sampling Passive sampling Segregation and Quantifying (litter boom) (foot survey) quantication plastic load Drones mounted with Floating litter boom Passive sampling, conducted 1 Collected waste is segregated A plastic transportation cameras identify captures waste in km upstream and downstream into various waste types; model, combined with areas of high plastic the river from multiple on river banks, represents the plastics are further separated eld surveys and concentration upstream point and mismanaged local waste and quantied by type of hydrological data, non-point sources generated polymer estimates total plastic load in a year This represents solid This tells us about local pollution This helps identify the priority waste pollution that ending up along the banks that SUPs that are the major sources has already made its may potentially enter the river of plastic pollution way into the river system Results Average quantity of plastic waste collected during eld survey Plastic type Average quantity of plastic waste from active and passive sampling (%) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 Sampling sites along the ! Indus River Basin LDPE 43% Sanitary items 17% Multi-layered packaging 15% Analysis of waste Upper Indus Basin Others 10% collected reveals that plastics PS 5% contribute the most PET 4% to solid waste in Nowshera rivers … Peshawar ISLAMABAD PVC 4% PP 2% Dera Ismail Khan HDPE 2% Lahore Trimmu Balloki Share of plastic polymer found in eld survey Quetta and ease of recycling Panjnad Ease of recycling Plastic type Share of plastics in eld survey (%) Guddu Barrage ... and within plastics, low-value, PET 4% Sukkur hard-to-recycle Easy SAMPLING SITES HDPE 2% plastics make up a PP SELECTED CITIES 2% higher proportion Possible in some places LDPE 43% NATIONAL CAPITALS compared to those Hyderabad that can be PVC 4% Karachi recycled Difcult PS 5% Sanitary items 17% MLP 15% Other 10% Plastic concentration and annual discharge at sampling sites The study estimates that 100 0.0006 the amount of waste Plastic concentration (kg/m3) Annual discharge (km3/year) owing downstream Kotri 90 Barrage (the last barrage 80 0.0005 Water from the Indus and its on the Indus River before it tributaries is diverted into meets the Arabian Sea) 70 irrigation canals at barrages; 0.0004 accounts for leakages into 60 plastic waste, too, is diverted the sea across the canal system. 50 0.0003 40 30 0.0002 20 0.0001 10 In this way, diversions 0 0 at barrages act as Sampling Nowshera, Trimmu, Baloki, Guddu, Sukkur, Hyderabad 'sinks' for plastic site, Upper Khyber Punjab Punjab Sindh Sindh (Kotri Barrage), waste, removing it Indus Basin Pakhtunkhwa Sindh from the rivers and into the canals. Annual discharge (km3/year) Plastic concentration (kg/m3) Drivers of solid waste —particularly plastics— Inadequate legal Lack of solid waste framework to ensure treatment and disposal entering the Indus River accountability for SWM facilities system Poor enforcement of Informal sector lters out Low solid waste collection environmental laws and high-value plastics and rates—only about 50% of insufcient end-of-pipe operates outside of a MSW is collected nationwide solutions regulatory framework Key Findings 40% of waste in and Nearly of 2 out of 3 1 in 2 plastic waste 75% of the plastics found 1 in every 4 along the banks of the Indus items in the IRB, when products is made of LDPE, in the river staggeringly pieces of plastic waste is constitute plastics, making including textiles and MLP, typically used for SUPs such as comprise the top three a single-use item them a dominant are composed of or contain bottles, grocery bags, and plastic types: LDPE, sanitary component of MSW plastic disposable containers items, and MLP Recommendations towards integrated land-water plastic waste management Improve and expand Invest in data collection, Resolve overlaps and ll gaps in capacity building of waste monitoring, and planning, policy, and legal management systems reporting frameworks Ÿ Expand waste collection, treatment, and Ÿ Build capacity to collect data Ÿ Assign responsibility for specic tasks to specic disposal infrastructure Ÿ Establish an integrated basin-scale institutions, thus improving accountability Ÿ Improve service provision by local monitoring platform/dashboard Ÿ Create a functional relationship between governments Ÿ Identify major concentrations and federal, provincial, and local government actors movements of plastic pollution towards, Ÿ Improve coordination between SWM and water within, and from rivers and canals to the sea management institutions Ÿ Update/create laws and regulations governing plastic production and disposal Abbreviations: HDPE = high-density polyethylene, LDPE = low-density polyethylene, MLP = multi=layered packaging, MSW = municipal solid waste, PET = polyethylene terephthalate, PP = polypropylene, PVC = polyvinyl chloride, PS = polystyrene, SUP = single-use plastic, SWM = solid waste management. For more information, please see Plastic Waste: A Journey Down the Indus River Basin in Pakistan (2022), published by the World Bank, with generous funding from the South Asia Water Initiative (SAWI).