Watchdog steps up activity against polluting industries

Shuts down one unit; issues Environment Protection Order to another.

KARACHI: According to reports, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Sindh stepped up monitoring activities during the period between August 15 and September 15 on the directives of Sindh Minister for Environment and Alternative Energy Sheikh Muhammad Afzal, aka Khalid Umer.

During the period, EPA teams visited a total of 104 units; including industries, hospitals, solid waste management services, building projects and miscellaneous commercial and services concerns; in Karachi and its suburbs, to check that no environment laws were being violated.

In this regard, EPA Sindh has issued notices to 27 units for polluting the environment. These units include industries, hospitals, solid waste management services, building projects and miscellaneous commercial and services concerns.

Consequently, an industrial unit was sealed by the watchdog, under Section 16 of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997, on grounds of persistently polluting the surrounding environment through the industry’s activity. The Environmental Protection Act authorises the provincial environmental watchdog to shut down any manufacturing or services unit found involved in violating the environmental laws of the country.

During the period, EPA Sindh also issued an Environmental Protection Order to a polluting industry under Section 16 of the Environmental Protection Act. It also offered the industry the opportunity to attend a personal hearing to appeal the move and make a case for itself as to why prosecution may not be initiated against it.

Moreover, during the previous month, EPA Sindh also attended to 35 complaints submitted by civil society regarding allegations against various units for polluting the environment.

To conduct an analysis of various polluting activities, EPA Sindh has collected samples from nine industries located in Karachi. These will be analysed in an environmental laboratory, and if found to be exceeding permissible limits of pollutants set in the National Environmental Quality Standards law, necessary legal action would be initiated against them, EPA Sindh said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2012.