Environmental pollution: Monitoring system rusting away due to shortage of funds

Equipment provided by Japan is not in use since 2010

ISLAMABAD: Air and water pollution is rising across the country in the absence of a functioning integrated environmental monitoring system by virtue of negligence, shortage of funds and dearth of technical staff.  

Currently, no mechanism is in place to gauge the air and water quality as environmental monitoring systems (EMS) donated by the Government of Japan and are rusting at the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA)’s head office in Islamabad and the provincial stations.

The equipment has been unused since devolution of the Environment Ministry to provinces in 2010.

Former EPA director-general Dr Khursheed Khan attempted to take provincial EPAs in the loop to reactivate the system in 2014 but failed due to shortage of funds.

In this context, the Pak-EPA had also invited expressions of interest (EOIs) from various firms to operationalise the EMS equipment but the EPA proposal for allocation of funds could not get the attention of the authorities in the current fiscal year.

EPA Director Laboratories Dr Ziaudin Khattak told The Express Tribune that the EMS needed calibration after every two weeks and millions of rupees were required to reactivate the system.

He said that the EPA had submitted a proposal to the Planning Commission for allocation of funds to make the system functional but it did not allocate funds in the budget.

“Laboratories have stopped functioning and expensive chemicals have expired due to non-availability of funds and inattention,” said another EPA official.

“Equipment have been rusting and have stopped functioning and chemicals for their maintenance have also expired,” said the official.

The EMS project was launched with the support of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency in 2007, with an aim to establish the basis for a nationwide analysis of environmental pollution and to enhance technical capacity of watchdogs.

The project was completed at a cost of Rs713.3705 million.

The Jica constructed the ground floor of the Central Laboratory for Environmental Analysis and Networking, which is EPA’s head office now, consists of a main lab, an air and water lab, a data centre and a micro-biological lab with state-of-the-art equipment, capable of testing industrial and municipal waste and air pollution.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2015.