KARACHI: The Government of Sindh is set to establish four effluent treatment plants in five industrial zones of Karachi, Chief Engineer (Projects), Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KW&SB), Saleem Siddiqui, informed industrialists during a presentation on Friday.
He said among the four effluent treatment plants, two will be in SITE area, the third one in Korangi/Landhi and the fourth in Federal B Area/North Karachi. The task has been entrusted to KW&SB.
Chairman SITE Association of Industry, Salim Parekh, said that the Supreme Court had, during the proceedings of a human rights petition, taken a serious view of pollution in Karachi and directed the Sindh Government to control industrial pollution.
In the light of the directives of the Supreme Court, the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and SITE Limited got into action and started issuing notices to industries for strict compliance with the instructions of the court.
Otherwise, they were warned they would be prosecuted by the Environmental Protection Tribunal under Section 17 of Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997 and SITE Ltd also threatened to cancel the lease of industries.
“Our prime concern is to have a combined effluent treatment plant and now this gigantic task has been entrusted to KW&SB by the Sindh Government asking it to construct two combined effluent treatment plants at the existing sites of TP-I (in Gutter Bagicha) and TP-II (Trans Lyari),” Parekh said.
The entire cost of the four plants will be around Rs7.366 billion while Rs500 million have already been allocated for the two plants, he said.
Parekh said that for the establishment of plants at TP-1, around 25 acres of land would be needed while 52 acres of land is available with KW&SB/CDGK. Similarly, at TP-II around 35 acres of land would be required while KW&SB/CDGK has 52-53 acres.
The cost of TP-1 plant will be around Rs1.708 billion and TP-II will be around Rs2.399 billion. The chief engineer said that it will take two to three years to complete the two plants for SITE zone.
PC-1 for both the projects has been forwarded to the Sindh Industries Department for approval.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 24th, 2010.
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