KCCI chief offers to mediate between Sepa and city’s industrialists

The Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) has offered to mediate between the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), the relevant provincial authorities and the city’s industrialists to avert large-scale closure of industrial units due to sudden implementation of environmental laws regarding treatment of effluents.

A delegation of the National Forum of Environment & Health (NFEH) met KCCI President Shamim Ahmed Firpo at his office on Saturday to discuss the emergency situation concerning the city’s industries.

The meeting was held in the wake of Sepa serving hundreds of units in seven industrial estates of the city with notices warning them to shut down their operations due to absence of separate effluent treatment plants and other violations of the provincial environmental laws.

NFEH President Naeem Qureshi suggested that a meeting be immediately convened between Sepa officials, relevant ministers and secretaries of the provincial government’s departments and representatives of the city’s industrialists to sort out the issue.

The KCCI chief said the chamber of commerce & industry would soon host the joint meeting to formally seek the assistance and support of the government for resolving the matter of closing a number of the city’s industries over environmental concerns.

Firpo said closure of industrial units merely through a decree of the environmental watchdog would serve no purpose and would not help the cause of environmental protection in the long-term.

He said closure of some of the industrial units while deeming their operations hazardous for the environment would cause panic and anxiety among the rest of the industrialists and businessmen, as they would also be compelled to shut down their respective industries.

Operating industrial units has already become a difficult task because of a number of persisting issues relating to business and industry in the province, he added.

The KCCI president said Sepa ordering closure of industrial units would be sheer injustice on the part of a government agency as it would only lead to unemployment, panic and harassment among the industrialists and businessmen.

He said both the provincial and federal governments were responsible for setting up combined effluent treatment plants in every industrial zone of the city, but the administrations had been constantly shying away from its obligations.

The industrialists have unjustifiably been asked to establish effluent treatment units on their own and without the support of the government, he added.

Firpo appreciated the NFEH’s ongoing tree plantation campaign across the city, saying that the KCCI and its member organisations would fully take part in the drive to beautify the city and to safeguard its environment. He urged the provincial government and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to adopt measures on emergency basis for sanitation, cleanliness, developing mass transportation facilities and promoting tree plantation and greenery in the city.