Sepa rejects environmental assessment of PQA’s coal project

Dismisses report over conflict of interest as Nespak,
a consultant on the project, had prepared it

At a public hearing, on Tuesday, the director general of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) rejected the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of a four-kilometre long coal conveying system and coal stockyard at the Port Qasim over environmental, health and business concerns.

The assessment was carried out by the Port Qasim Authority’s consultant on the project, National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak), which also happened to be the port’s environmental consultant on the project.

The EIA was rejected after concerned citizens, environmentalists and industrialists feared the project would cause severe damages to the environment, as well as businesses of industries located near area from where the shipped coal would be transported for storage as well as other places of transport.

Sepa’s Director General Naeem Mughal directed the authorities to conduct a fresh impact assessment of the project, and also apprise the authorities of the maximum amount of coal to be imported, transported and stored in the country at a time.

The project’s impact on environment and lives of people, what safer arrangements for transporting the mineral upcountry were decided to be taken, were also asked to be identified.

Mughal also advised the proponent to explore other environmentally safer ways of transporting coal from the jetty to a temporary stockyard, and other transportation sites - where it was intended to be used for energy production.

The DG announced that another public hearing would be held as soon as both the concerned authorities submitted a new EIA report, and vowed that environmental rights of the people and the land of Sindh would not be compromised for monetary gains.

A concerned citizen questioned Nespak’s - a party to the project - authority to conduct an environmental assessment of the project and declare it safe.

Complainants also pointed out that the PQA’s master plan had no place for a coal stockyard or a coal conveying system in the master plan, further observing that the project could not be environment-friendly.

The concerned parties also argued that no measures to protect residential colonies and local industries from carbon dust were suggested.

Citing the high court’s judgment allowing the port to store only two hundred thousand tons of imported coal at a time, the environmentalists argued that under the project the PQA was planning to store around four hundred thousand tons of coal.

This was stated to be tantamount to committing contempt of court and a serious violation of environmental laws of the province and the country.

The public hearing was attended by representatives of NGOs including Shehri, officials of the Pakistan Railway, Suparco, Parco, Pakistan Engineering Council, Bin Qasim Industrial Union, environmentalists, legal experts, journalists and community representatives from areas around Bin Qasim.