Sindh environment minister vows to implement laws
Have decided to hold follow-up meeting to ensure directions are implemented, says Talpur
PHOTO COURTESY: UN
HYDERABAD:
As the contamination of waterways and pollution of environment continues unabated, the new Sindh Environment Minister Taimur Talpur has vowed that he will take a stringent approach to enforce environmental laws. How effective his assertions will be, only time will tell.
“The ministers and secretaries give directions but implementation always remains in the pipeline,” he acknowledged at a press conference in Hyderabad on Thursday. “Therefore, I have decided to hold follow-up meetings for every decision we take.”
The minister addressed the media after chairing his maiden meeting over a range of environmental issues in Hyderabad division. Officials of local bodies, Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate (SITE), Public Health Engineering Department and Health Department, among others, attended.
The representatives of Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI), Hyderabad SITE Association, Kotri Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), Nooriabad SITE Association, Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD) and Hyderabad Chamber of Small Trade and Small Industry (HCSTSI) were also present.
Legal fraternity takes up environmental issues
He claimed that the government officials as well as the business community had been given the final warning to either comply or face action. “We will prosecute them in the environmental tribunals. The government officials who remain adamant in violating the laws will be removed ... and the government departments which will remain defiant will face financial implications,” he warned.
Talpur was specifically questioned about the persistent contravention of Sindh Environmental Protection Act, 2014, by the local bodies which dump and burn solid waste in residential and commercial areas. Responding to the query, he insisted that the Sindh Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) will not discriminate among the public and private offenders when they begin to prosecute them in the tribunals.
According to the minister, he took charge of the ministry three and a half months ago and all the while kept his focus on Karachi. But now, he added, he planned to visit and hold meetings with stakeholders in all divisions of Sindh.
When asked if he visited the sites in Hyderabad where the environmental offences are evidently occurring, he replied in the negative. “I have come to know about the sites and other problems in Hyderabad through the presentation given by the Sindh Environment Protection Agency.” He apprised that SEPA’s district chapters will be activated in 19 districts of Sindh by 2020, adding that the agency has planned to recruit staff in view of its expanding responsibilities.
Meeting
Some industrialists and businessmen of Hyderabad and Jamshoro maintained an unrelenting stance when it came to the installation of in-house effluent treatment systems in each industrial unit. “Industrial sewage is just 4% of the total sewage polluting Phuleli canal [in Hyderabad],” argued Hyderabad SITE Association’s Chairperson Shahid Qaimkhani.
WASA’s Acting Managing Director Ghulam Muhammad rebutted, contending that even the 4% effluent of industries is far more poisonous than the entire domestic sewage combined. Qaimkhani demanded that the Sindh government and Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate should construct combined effluent treatment plants (CEPTs) in every SITE area instead of pushing each individual unit to install the treatment plants.
‘TAPI pipeline will conform to environmental laws’
But a government built CEPT, although newly built yet non-functional, already exists in Kotri SITE area in Jamshoro district.
The SEPA Director-General (DG) Naeem Mughal criticised KATI, which was given operational control of the plant a year ago, for failing to treat effluent before releasing it in the canal. The managing director of SITE limited claimed that the plant, which cost the government over Rs1 billion, worked to its capacity for around three months under the control of SITE before it was handed over.
However, KATI chairperson Asif Memon rejected the claims, pointing out that the plant had design faults and capacity issues. “SEPA’s standard for treated water is 400 COD [chemical oxygen demand]. But, the plant is designed to reduce 50% COD of the effluent which it received.” According to him, the readings taken from Kotri SITE area range between 4,000 to 5,000 COD which means even after reduction the COD will remain in the range of 2,ooo to 2,500.
The minister directed SITE and SEPA officials to sort out the matter of the plant’s management control with KATI within a week. Memon offered that the association is willing not only to return the plant but also pay the monthly operational cost of between Rs6 million to Rs7 million.
The SEPA DG briefed the minister that 90% samples of WASA supplied drinking water in Hyderabad were contaminated including the bacteriological elements causing drug resistant typhoid and other water borne illnesses. Hyderabad Commissioner Muhammad Abbass Baloch informed that a committed has been formed to address the problem within 15 days. The minister rejected WASA’s explanations about the water contamination, holding the agency squarely responsible for the supply of clean drinking water.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 1st, 2019.
As the contamination of waterways and pollution of environment continues unabated, the new Sindh Environment Minister Taimur Talpur has vowed that he will take a stringent approach to enforce environmental laws. How effective his assertions will be, only time will tell.
“The ministers and secretaries give directions but implementation always remains in the pipeline,” he acknowledged at a press conference in Hyderabad on Thursday. “Therefore, I have decided to hold follow-up meetings for every decision we take.”
The minister addressed the media after chairing his maiden meeting over a range of environmental issues in Hyderabad division. Officials of local bodies, Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate (SITE), Public Health Engineering Department and Health Department, among others, attended.
The representatives of Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI), Hyderabad SITE Association, Kotri Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), Nooriabad SITE Association, Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD) and Hyderabad Chamber of Small Trade and Small Industry (HCSTSI) were also present.
Legal fraternity takes up environmental issues
He claimed that the government officials as well as the business community had been given the final warning to either comply or face action. “We will prosecute them in the environmental tribunals. The government officials who remain adamant in violating the laws will be removed ... and the government departments which will remain defiant will face financial implications,” he warned.
Talpur was specifically questioned about the persistent contravention of Sindh Environmental Protection Act, 2014, by the local bodies which dump and burn solid waste in residential and commercial areas. Responding to the query, he insisted that the Sindh Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) will not discriminate among the public and private offenders when they begin to prosecute them in the tribunals.
According to the minister, he took charge of the ministry three and a half months ago and all the while kept his focus on Karachi. But now, he added, he planned to visit and hold meetings with stakeholders in all divisions of Sindh.
When asked if he visited the sites in Hyderabad where the environmental offences are evidently occurring, he replied in the negative. “I have come to know about the sites and other problems in Hyderabad through the presentation given by the Sindh Environment Protection Agency.” He apprised that SEPA’s district chapters will be activated in 19 districts of Sindh by 2020, adding that the agency has planned to recruit staff in view of its expanding responsibilities.
Meeting
Some industrialists and businessmen of Hyderabad and Jamshoro maintained an unrelenting stance when it came to the installation of in-house effluent treatment systems in each industrial unit. “Industrial sewage is just 4% of the total sewage polluting Phuleli canal [in Hyderabad],” argued Hyderabad SITE Association’s Chairperson Shahid Qaimkhani.
WASA’s Acting Managing Director Ghulam Muhammad rebutted, contending that even the 4% effluent of industries is far more poisonous than the entire domestic sewage combined. Qaimkhani demanded that the Sindh government and Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate should construct combined effluent treatment plants (CEPTs) in every SITE area instead of pushing each individual unit to install the treatment plants.
‘TAPI pipeline will conform to environmental laws’
But a government built CEPT, although newly built yet non-functional, already exists in Kotri SITE area in Jamshoro district.
The SEPA Director-General (DG) Naeem Mughal criticised KATI, which was given operational control of the plant a year ago, for failing to treat effluent before releasing it in the canal. The managing director of SITE limited claimed that the plant, which cost the government over Rs1 billion, worked to its capacity for around three months under the control of SITE before it was handed over.
However, KATI chairperson Asif Memon rejected the claims, pointing out that the plant had design faults and capacity issues. “SEPA’s standard for treated water is 400 COD [chemical oxygen demand]. But, the plant is designed to reduce 50% COD of the effluent which it received.” According to him, the readings taken from Kotri SITE area range between 4,000 to 5,000 COD which means even after reduction the COD will remain in the range of 2,ooo to 2,500.
The minister directed SITE and SEPA officials to sort out the matter of the plant’s management control with KATI within a week. Memon offered that the association is willing not only to return the plant but also pay the monthly operational cost of between Rs6 million to Rs7 million.
The SEPA DG briefed the minister that 90% samples of WASA supplied drinking water in Hyderabad were contaminated including the bacteriological elements causing drug resistant typhoid and other water borne illnesses. Hyderabad Commissioner Muhammad Abbass Baloch informed that a committed has been formed to address the problem within 15 days. The minister rejected WASA’s explanations about the water contamination, holding the agency squarely responsible for the supply of clean drinking water.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 1st, 2019.