‘Sindh to allocate Rs270 million for 10 environmental protection centres’

The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has been allowed to establish 10 satellite environmental protection centres in different districts of the province. In this regard, the Sindh Finance Department has agreed to allocate Rs270 million in the next fiscal budget, The News has learnt.

“We had sought Rs711 million from the Sindh Finance Department for the establishment of SEPA satellite centres in 29 districts of Sindh but the finance department has asked us to establish these centres in three phases. In the first phase, we have been asked to establish 10 centres, for which around 270 million rupees would be allocated in the provincial budget for 2017-18,” the newly-appointed director general of SEPA, Baqaullah Unnar, told this scribe at his office on Thursday.

Unnar, an officer of BPS-20, was appointed the SEPA director general by the Sindh government a couple of weeks back after removing previous director Naeem Mughal, who had been declared an incompetent officer by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the recommendations of a commission of inquiry.

Establishment of each environmental protection centre would cost around Rs27 million and would be comprised of five to 10 staff members, including environmentalists, administrators and field officers. These satellite offices would keep an eye at district levels over activities detrimental to environment and take action against violators of the Sindh Environmental Protection Act, Unnar said.

“In the first phase, these district environmental protection centers would be established in far-flung areas of the province, including Mithi and Ghotki where previously no official of the environmental watchdog ever dared to visit,” he said.

“Ghotki has the second largest number of industrial units after Karachi in Sindh but nobody ever tried to look into its impact on the local environment,” Unnar maintained.

Water testing lab 

Within a week of assuming charge of his office, a water quality testing lab that was non-functional for the last six years at the SEPA head office in Karachi, has also been made functional and now it is testing and analysing water samples being collected from different areas of Karachi, Baqaullah Unar said, adding that earlier these samples used to be sent to private labs for analysis, for which the environmental agency used to pay heavy amounts to laboratories.

“Provision of safe drinking water is my first priority as this is the basic human right and the most important environmental issue in the province. If clean drinking water is not being delivered to people in Karachi and rest of the province, we have no right to talk about environmental degradation,” the SEPA DG said, adding that the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) and other water supply bodies in Sindh would be held accountable for providing tainted, contaminated water supply to people.

The environmental watchdog chief claimed that samples of water from different areas were now being tested at the SEPA lab for turbidity, TDS, microbiological and chemical contests, pH level and chlorine.

He said that results of these tests would be sent to the KWSB for improving its system and provision of safe drinking water to people.

“A commission of inquiry appointed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan recently declared that 85 percent of water being supplied to Karachi is not fit for human consumption,” he said, and vowed to improve the situation at the earliest.

“Similarly, an air quality analysis unit that was not made functional since its installation at SEPA headquarters some six years back, has also been made functional and now it can monitor the quality of ambient air around the SEPA head office in Korangi Industrial Area round the clock,” he said.

“We invited the JICA experts from Lahore and they made out air quality analysis unit functional. It can now monitor the air quality and pollution in the air,” Unar said.

Effluent treatment plants 

The new chief said his third priority was to install a sewage treatment to treat the sewage before its dumping into the sea that had turned into a large pool of dirty water. “Discharge of industrial effluent into the sea and freshwater bodies is unacceptable. These industries would be asked and persuaded to install effluent treatment plants,” he vowed.

The Sindh environmental agency chief said preventing unplanned high-rise buildings in Karachi, establishment of the Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) as per environmental protection act and creation of an advisory council were some of the other steps that would be taken in the days to come.