Garbage dump: Due to non-functioning of sewage treatment plants, untreated municipal and industrial sewage is dumped in the Indus River and Phuleli Canal, causing hazardous pollution. PHOTO: FILE
HYDERABAD: The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) has finally taken a belated notice on Tuesday against a flagrant violation of environmental regulations and a practice exposing for many years citizens' health to serious complications.
For over a decade, the municipal authorities of Qasimabad, a rapidly growing taluka of Hyderabad, have been filling a piece of land with solid waste. Tons of garbage is dumped and burnt daily in an eight to 10 acres plot of land which is surrounded by the only sports facility for public in the town, Qasimabad Sports Complex. Thousands of people also reside in half a dozen housing colonies and hundreds of homes in the katchi abadi.
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A letter, issued on Tuesday by regional in charge of Sepa, deputy director Munir Abbassi, asked Qasimabad Municipal Committee (QMC) Chief Municipal Officer to immediately stop dumping and burning of solid waste. He was directed to lift the existing waste from the piece of land. The notice warned of trial in the Sindh Environmental Protection Tribunal in case of failure to comply with the directives.
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QMC Chairperson Kashif Shoro is a brother of Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro. An official of the district administration, who requested anonymity, said compliance appeared unlikely.
"Although Sepa has taken the plunge, it won't be able to ensure compliance or log the case in the tribunal," he believed. "The agency's officials know what the consequences can be for them."
Sindh High Court's judicial commission on water and sanitation has also ordered the district administration and the municipal authorities of Hyderabad to desist from throwing solid waste and setting it on fire near residential localities and along waterways. However, violation of the order is evident in many parts of Hyderabad as last week again Sepa put the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) on notice for this practice.
In October, HMC Municipal Commissioner Shahid Ali Khan, in a personal hearing of the agency, had assured that the violation, especially pollution of Phuleli canal which supplies water to four districts, would be stopped.
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