Sepa raids Jodia Bazaar as ban on polythene bags comes into effect

A team of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) raided Karachi’s famous wholesale market in District South, Jodia Bazaar, and seized a large quantity of shopping bags as the provincial government’s ban on all forms of prohibited polythene bags came into effect on Tuesday.

Later, talking to the media at the Sindh Assembly, Barrister Murtaza Wahab said that Sepa’s director general led the provincial environmental watchdog’s raiding team that seized a large quantity of polythene bags.

The chief minister’s adviser on environment said that a ban on the prohibited types of polythene bags had come into effect across Sindh, adding that around two months ago the government had launched an awareness campaign to rid the province of plastic shopping bags.

He said the media, the civil society and other relevant stakeholders in the province had been brought on board for the drive against polythene bags, adding that the government had issued a notification banning the manufacture, sale and use of non-biodegradable plastic bags. Wahab said Sepa has been benefitting the people after the watchdog started playing an active role to safeguard the environment. He said a Sepa team also raided a factory in District Jamshoro and sealed it for combusting old batteries to extract lead from them. He added that in the past week a team of the watchdog had raided a factory in Keamari to shut down its illegal burning of coal to produce iron ore.

The adviser lauded the business community of the province, saying that most of the traders in Karachi had agreed to abide by the government’s ban on harmful forms of polythene bags. He said shopkeepers had put up messages at their shops advising their customers to bring cloth or paper bags with them to carry their shopping items to avoid using plastic bags. “It is our collective responsibility to improve the environment. We can get rid of environmental pollution once we get our act together. Plastic bags are a major source of damage being caused to the environment.”