SEPA comes under fire for failure to identify lawbreakers

Only 245 of 27,000 violators with served notices for violating environmental laws, commission told

KARACHI: The Supreme Court-appointed judicial commission directed on Saturday the chairperson of the provincial taskforce mandated by the apex court to look into the affairs of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), identify the cause of its failure and suggest remedial measures to make it a ‘result-oriented’ organisation.

Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro of the Sindh High Court, who is heading the judicial commission investigating the authorities' failure to provide clean drinking water and improve sanitation conditions in Sindh, gave these directives during implementation proceedings.

Earlier, the agency's assistant director-general, Syed Muhammad Yahya, filed a report. He informed the court that notices were served on 245 industrial units for violating environmental laws, while the cases of 26 units were referred to the environmental tribunal for prosecution in six months.

When confronted that thousands of industries were working in violation of the Sindh Environmental Protection Act, 2014 and Sepa had been able to identify only 26 units for prosecution, the officer had no reply.



The commission was of the view that Sepa was essential in addressing the problems being discussed in these proceedings but it had not been able to perform.

The report claimed that fines to the tune of Rs11 million had been imposed on industrial units for violating environmental laws, adding that a portion of the fines had been recovered.

The petitioner, Shahab Osto, said there were 27,000 big and small industries across the province, but the agency had served notices to only 245 units. He argued that imposing a fine of a mere Rs50,000 was a mockery of the law.

Industrial waste treatment

Industries Secretary Abdul Raheem Soomro said the federal government had promised to contribute 33% of the export development fund to the provincial government for the installation of the combined effluent treatment plant meant to treat toxic industrial waste before it is dumped into the sea.

He said the matter of release of the funds was recently taken up in a meeting with the federal finance ministry, which refused to provide the funds. He said the province had once again approached the ministry of industries for this purpose.



The commission issued a notice to the joint secretary of the finance ministry to appear on the next date of the hearing along with the minutes of the meeting.

A report was filed on behalf of the provincial health secretary, stating that incinerators for three out of 17 major government hospitals had been purchased for disposal of toxic and hazardous medical waste. The same are being installed at the hospitals, it added.

The commission directed the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources authorities to visit the public hospitals to check the availability of clean drinking water and submit a report.

The Rangers law officer filed a report, maintaining that effective patrolling was being regularly carried out to check illegal excavation of sand from the riverbed of the Malir River.



The focal person for the provincial chief secretary stated that the taskforce chairperson was abroad for training in Japan.

 No drinking water

The commission expressed its ‘extreme annoyance’ at the provincial authorities for their continued failure to provide clean drinking water and sanitation in the province.

It inquired from LG Secretary Muhammad Ramzan as to why the conditions were not being improved in compliance with the SC’s orders. The secretary admitted that the funds shortage was not the main reason behind the poor state of affairs, adding that ineligibility on the part of the authorities was responsible.

He said funds were available for the schemes meant to provide clean drinking water and improve sanitation conditions but those schemes were not being properly executed.

A senior researcher, Dr Murtaza Arain, who is assisting the commission, informed it that water treatment plants with a capacity of treating 600,000 gallons of water had been installed in Badin district, where the total requirement of water stood at 100,000 gallons. He disclosed that there were proper arrangements made to store the additional water.



Justice Kalhoro came down hard on the secretaries of the LG and public health engineering departments over the poor planning in execution of the development schemes and improper utilisation of public money. He directed both the secretaries to sort out the matter and resolve it as soon as possible.

The Badin deputy commissioner assured that all the water filtration plants will be made functional within 10 days.

Justice Kalhoro observed that the condition of water supply in the district was poor, adding that the water storage tank was also in a bad condition. He directed the deputy commissioner to get the tank cleaned immediately and connect it with the water supply network so that the people could get clean drinking water.

The commission observed that making the water filtration plants operational will not serve any purpose unless clean water was supplied to residents. It further noted that the officers concerned in the LG and public health engineering departments were shifting the responsibility of supplying potable water on to each other.

Justice Kalhoro remarked that none of the officers seemed ready to take the responsibility of supplying clean drinking water to the residents in the district, adding that the water supply system was inefficient and residents were not getting clean drinking water, therefore, what was the utility of the system?



The commission directed the deputy commissioner to convene a meeting of the public health engineering department officers to discuss ways to supply drinking water to the residents through pipelines and reverse osmosis plants.

It directed all concerned officials to chalk out a mechanism to ensure supply of potable water in the district, including making the water tank functional, and submit a compliance report by the next date of the hearing.

Ramzan said a draft of the law to regulate water hydrants and tanker services had been prepared. He assured that the proposed law would be presented in the assembly in the upcoming session.