Pak-EPA to move marble units out of Sector B-17

Official says they are in talks with unit owners for relocation

ISLAMABAD: To protect the environment and the health of residents, the top environmental watchdog in the federal capital has decided to move marble factories set up on the outskirts of the city out of the residential areas.

Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) Director General Farzana Altaf Shah told the APP that as many as 22 marble units were operating in Sector B-17 area — Sangjiani — of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). Owing to the dust kicked up by these factories when cutting the marble and other water and noise pollution, residents of the area can face respiratory diseases among other health issues.

Shah said that apart from the registered units in these areas, there were a number of units which were operating illegally, particularly in or very close to the residential areas.

She said that they were currently in consultations with the owners of the legal units to devise a mechanism whereby their units are relocated so that they do not pose a threat to human life in their surroundings.

Islamabad pollution: Pak-EPA monitoring steel units

The Environmental Protection Tribunal has already imposed fines worth over Rs11 million on the marble factories, Shah said, adding that their cases against similar factories operating in Sectors I-9 and I-10 are pending before the Supreme Court and the Labour Department of ICT.

The apex court, she said, has already ordered the factories to take measures for the safety of their labourers as per international labour laws.

"Marble cutting involves a wet process in closed chambers where the marble dust settles which otherwise affects the health of labourers working in the units," she said, adding that industrialists dealing in marble were allowed by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to set up their warehouses in the city which they did in ordinary shops in Sector I-9. However, she said that the industrialists instead occupied space beyond their jurisdiction, causing problems for area residents.

Moreover, she said that the units started marble cutting operations in the open outside the shops with little to no safety measures. This polluted the air around these shops with microscopic marble dust which when inhaled for prolonged periods respirable crystalline silica dust can cause lung damage and a lung disease called silicosis.

Moreover, the marble dust which did settle around the units was being dumped through water disposal drains into the adjoining storm drains.

CDA moves against illegal construction

It was a serious risk to human health and ecology, which should be addressed, she stressed.

Similarly, Shah said that the steel mills operating in Sector I-9 Industrial Area used to spew dark smoke into the air making it difficult for residents of areas around the sector to breath.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2^nd, 2019.