Environment: Air samplers EPD’s biggest expense

Rs350 million for Environment Protection Dept, up Rs15m from last year.

LAHORE:

A large proportion of the Punjab’s Rs350 million environment budget for the province the next financial year will be spent on air samplers to monitor atmospheric pollution. Last year’s budget set aside Rs335 million for the Environment Protection Department (EPD).

Around Rs100 million will be spent on importing and installing the expensive machinery from Japan, said EPD secretary Sajjad Saleem Hotiana.

The department is currently using three air samplers and an air monitoring van borrowed from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, the aid arm of the Japanese government. These will be withdrawn in December, he said.

Two other new schemes have been allocated money. The EPD will get Rs40 million for joint ventures with universities and colleges, and Rs20 million for a community-based environmental improvement programme. The budget also includes a block allocation of Rs84 million.

Eight ongoing schemes have been allocated Rs76 million and two of them will be finished this year, Hotiana said. Under one of these schemes, the department is training 600 employees to assess new industries for their environmental impact.

All new industries are required to get approval from the EPD before starting. Under the other scheme, also initiated in 2009, 600 Environment Protection Agency officials are being trained to collect and study forensic evidence.

The other schemes include training programmes, two buildings, equipment for the EPD library, and a scheme to create four biodiversity parks in Punjab. Two parks have been completed while the other two in Murree and Cholistan will be ready in another two years, Hotiana estimated.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 11th, 2011.