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Friday March 29, 2024

Sepa makes NoC a must for all coal importers

By our correspondents
October 04, 2016

From now onwards, nobody would be allowed to import coal without a no-objection certificate (NoC) obtained by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), the watchdog’s director general announced on Monday.

Presiding over a meeting held with leading coal importers of the country, Sepa DG, Naeem Mughal, observed the move was in line with protective measures taken to stop environmental degradation.

The DG said it was widely observed that during the whole process of import, coal was mishandled while precautionary measures were ignored by most of the importers. “As a result, those handling the mineral as well as communities living around areas where it is unloaded, up to the final transportation point, are at a serious risk of contracting health problems; besides also causing environmental hazards,” Mughal maintained.

He claimed that a letter would be written to the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and Port Qasim Authority (PQA) asking them to not allow anyone to import coal if they did not have a Sepa NOC.

Mughal, furthermore, warned of strict action against importers taking open areas near the port for ‘temporary storage places’ before transporting them to the final points. He advised KPT representatives to establish an environment-friendly system for coal handing within the port.

Another letter was also claimed to be written to the Pakistan Railways to remove all coal illegally dumped on its land, Mughal observed. The meeting’s attendees also took notice of a huge stock of coal dumped near the historic Wazir Mansion – the birth place of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

The DG Sepa resolved to ask the concerned authority to remove the coal within fifteen days.   Those who attended the meeting were representatives of Pioneer Cement, ICI Pakistan, Maple Leaf Cement, Indus Home Ltd, KPT, Awan Trading, Lucky Cement, Stevedore Pvt Ltd and others. On September 23, the environmental watchdog had asked the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) to suspend all coal handling and storage operations at the port.

The directives were given on a public hearing, terming the activity illegal and a serious cause of environmental degradation. “Stop all activities being carried out without any environmental assessment with immediate effect,” Mughal had asserted.

The hearing was held on an environmental impact assessment report submitted to Sepa with respect to the proposed coal transhipment project – a coal specific jetty - being built at berths three and four of the port. The shipped coal would be sent, through railways, to the 2x660 MWs coal-fired power plants at Sahiwal.