January 22, 2007	Monday	Muharram 02, 1428

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

PESHAWAR, Jan 21: The NWFP Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and the Town Municipal Administrations (TMAs) are not taking interest in solid waste disposal.

As a consequence, waste is seen scattered in cities and towns around the province.

The situation can be attributed also to ill-planned localities, complained a resident of Gulbahar. The EPA reportedly neither takes any action nor does it bring the issue to the notice of the TMAs, said the sources.

On the other hand, the TMAs have been complaining for a long time about shortage of staff, garbage collecting and loading machines, and the capacity to collect and dispose of garbage in a proper way, officials said.

Cantonment boards and the TMAs blame people for `lack of civic sense' in creating the nuisance. However, experts of the EPA too, neither helped in sorting out the problem nor have taken notice of the poor performance of the TMAs and the local government. Local bodies are responsible for proper sanitation.

Under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (PEPA), 1997, it is the responsibility of the EAP to enforce the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) in municipalities, industries and vehicles emitting smoke and take notice of the violators, officials said.

The EPA, NWFP, has submitted 36 cases to the environmental tribunal established in Peshawar and some 10 more new cases are prepared by the agency which will be submitted to the tribunal in its next hearing due by month-end, officials said.

"More than 100 notices have been served to many industries, including brick kiln but so far no notice has been issued to any TMA or public sector organisation for unhygienic conditions", official sources said.

There were only two instances when the EPA served notices to Town-III administration last year for making dumping place out of a greenbelt in Hayatabad Township. Another one was served to the DCO of Chitral regarding an old building but no notices were served to the TMAs for improper collection and inappropriate dumping of the solid waste.

"The EPA is comparatively small and the task to protect the environment of the entire province is Herculean. Throughout the province no suitable method of solid waste disposal is in sight", said an official.

The EPA has not involved respective stakeholders in protecting the environment nor has it taken notice of negligence, although one environmental tribunal is functioning in the NWFP for last two years. Even before this, cases were being heard in environmental tribunals in Punjab, sources said.

It is the responsibility of the EPA to assist local council and authorities to prepare and implement environment protection and pollution control programme and projects. Since its establishment, the EPA has not assisted any local council or authority to prepare and implement projects for solid waste disposal services and municipal effluent treatment and disposal of cities' waste, an official source confirmed.

The EPA has yet to engage TMAs to deal with more serious problems.