ISLAMABAD:
A Senate panel on Tuesday approved an amendment to the environmental laws of the federal capital which would prohibit littering in the city and proposes penalties for violators and repeat violators.
The Environmental Protection (Amendment) Bill 2020, introduced by Senator Faisal Javed Khan, was approved by the Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change after a detailed discussion at the Parliament House.
Chaired by Senator Sitara Ayaz, the Committee was told by the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) Director-General Dr Farzana Altaf Shah that the legislation was a much-needed requirement for the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
Shah, however, reminded the committee that the matter of preventing littering falls under the jurisdiction of the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC). Moreover, she said that the civic agencies of the federal capital, including the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the IMC, already have substantial human resources at their disposal to ensure sanitation of the city.
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Despite the abundance of resources, the Pak-EPA chief contended that these civic bodies had failed to keep the capital clean.
She said that the Islamabad Local Government Ordinance 2015, has many provisions, preventive measures and even penalties on littering but they do not seem to have been imposed.
“The IMC should be asked why they have not imposed fines on littering or undertaken efforts to curtail it,” she asked, adding that her agency is not empowered to oversee littering nor does not have the necessary resources to implement the amendment.
The committee members, however, were of the view that the amendment will be a good start to improving the environment of the federal capital and should be adopted. The committee further assured the authority that all loopholes, including capacity and resource issues along with overlapping jurisdiction, will be taken up and discussed in subsequent meetings of the committee by calling all relevant departments including the CDA and IMC.
However, this was not enough to stop the legislation.
Operational requirements and resources to implement the law are secondary questions and will come at later stages, senators argued and approved the bill.
Pollution in capital
The committee was given a briefing about the status of climatic changes (pollution levels and migration of animals and birds) in Islamabad after the novel coronavirus (Covid-19).
Senators were told that there are some 400 industries in Islamabad, while fossil fuel is burnt for energy production and some 25,000-30,000 vehicles consume fuel for meeting the daily transportation needs of ICT. Moreover, municipal waste burning and brick kilns are the major sources of pollution in the federal capital.
In this regard, the meeting was told that particulate matter (PM 2.5) in the capital’s air was recorded at 49.65 microgrammes per metre cube (mg/m3) in November 2019.
This had more than halved to 22.74 mg/m3 in June 2020, with the best figures coming in April at 17.67 mg/m3.
Hence, the pandemic and resulting lockdown have proved to be a blessing in disguise for the environment.
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The committee was told that readings of other pollutants such as Sulphur Dioxide and Nitrogen Dioxide are also under control in the capital while fewer pollen allergy cases were reported this year.
On the fauna in the Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP), the committee was briefed that there are 38 species of mammals, 218 species of birds, 82 resident species, 32 summer visitor species, 73 winters visitor species, 31 transitory migrants, 32 reptiles and nine species of amphibians in the MHNP.
Due to lockdown, the trails were closed. As a result, local species have been seen in growing numbers and are coming out of the hills and into the city.
Some 26 complaints have been received regarding monkeys and wild boars coming towards residential areas.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2020.
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