HYDERABAD: Industrialists asked to set up waste treatment plant
By M. H. Khan
HYDERABAD, June 23: The Environmental Protection Agency has asked industrialists of Kotri to set up a plant for treating effluent before disposing it of into the Kalri Baghar Feeder.
The directive was issued by Sindh EPA director-general Yunus Dagha at a meeting held at the circuit house here on Wednesday. Mr Dagha warned that action would be taken against the industrialists if the treatment plant was not established.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Kotri Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), Tariq Baloch, Kaleem Ishrat, Khalid Baloch, Ibrar Butt, Shakeel Siraj, Mohammad Jaffar, deputy chief engineer, Kotri Site, Abdullah Soomro, Abdul Razaq Kapri, executive engineer, Ejaz Shaikh, and the EDO, health, Nazar Mohammad Junejo.
According to a participant of the meeting, the EPA official regretted that work on the plant had not been initiated. EPA director Iqbal Nafees had issued the directive for setting up the treatment plant.
Mr Dagha said factories and industrial units could be closed if they were found guilty of slackness in establishing the plant. The meeting decided to conduct an independent and fresh study on the KB Feeder to determine the level and sources of contamination of the feeder.
The team that will conduct the study will include EPA, KATI and Site officials. The EPA director-general, however, disapproved setting up of an oxidation plant by the Kotri Site and underscored the need for establishing the treatment plant. He said the oxidation plant would be nothing but wastage of money.
He reminded the industrialists of an order on a human rights petition passed by a division bench of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, comprising Justice Mohammad Roshan Essani and Justice Amir Hani Muslim, in October last year regarding contamination of the feeder.
He assured factory owners that EPA would continue to offer technical assistance to them for research and analysis. KATI senior vice-president Tariq Baloch supported the fresh study on the feeder's contamination, promising that the association would provide assistance in this regard.
He said in the earlier study on the feeder by the MehranUniversity of Engineering and Technology, the entire onus had been shifted on industries. He said only 15 to 20 per cent industrial effluent was discharged into the feeder and industries disposed of 50 per cent effluent into their own lands.
He said the remaining 30 per cent went to the northern side where people used the water for cultivation. He said domestic waste of colonies of the Sindh University, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences and the MUET was also being discharged into the KB Feeder.
Meanwhile, Sindh EPA director-general Yunus Dagha asked the managing director of the Water and Sanitation Agency, Habibur Rehman Memon, and taluka municipal officers of Latifabad and City to ensure that no solid waste was disposed of into channels from where drinking water was provided to people of Hyderabad and Badin districts.
A huge quantity of solid waste is disposed of into Pinyari and Phulelli canals without any check. Mr Dagha noted that both the water channels from where people were supplied drinking water had got polluted. He asked the Wasa managing director to ensure early completion of work on sewerage plants.
