August 28, 2007	Tuesday	Sha’aban 14, 1428

LAHORE, Aug 27: More than 800 concerns, mostly industrial units in Punjab, have ‘officially’ been declared as pollutants. The Punjab Environment Protection Department has served Environment Protection Order (EPO) on such industrial units, hospitals, stone-crushers, brick-kilns, poultry units and housing colonies in the province for causing pollution.

The environment protection order (EPO) has been served under Section 12 of the Pakistan Environment Protection Act, 1997.

Most of the industries issued notices are located in Lahore, Shiekhupura, Faislabad, Multan, Sialkot, Rahim Yar Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sargodha.

They deal in textile, cement, sugar, cotton yarn, chemicals, rubber, medicines, flour, knitted fabric, marble slabs, diesel generator and ingredients of pesticides.

“These industries and hospitals have been given a specific period to treat their waste before discharging it into rivers, canals, ponds or plots. If they fail to do so, their cases will be forwarded to the environment tribunal for action against them,” EPD deputy director Nasimur Rehman told Dawn on Monday.

He said the government was providing full support to the industry regarding the establishment of treatment plants.

Nasimur Rehman said the government had released Rs90 million for shifting tanneries from the Sialkot city besides providing a sample of dust-collector to the stone-crush industry of Sargodha so that they could install the same in their units to control air pollution.

Similarly, he said the provincial government had also allocated funds for the establishment of treatment plants in Multan and Faisalabad industrial estates, and Sundar and Qauid-i-Azam industial zones in Lahore.

For Lahore, Rehman said a tract spread over 7,200 kanals had been acquired at Babu Sabu where a huge plant would be installed to treat wastewater of about 40 per cent industries of the provincial capital before releasing it (the wastewater) into Ravi.

Reports say that besides polluting irrigation channels, the industrial waste is also poisoning subsoil water used for drinking by residents of at least six to eight housing colonies on Multan Road, Lahore.

The wastewater penetrates into subsoil water and those using hand-pumps at their houses are exposed to various diseases. On the complaints of such residents, the EPO has been issued to certain factories but their shifting remains a distant dream.

Similarly, the hospitals in both public and private sectors issued EPO have so far developed no mechanism to treat their waste before disposing it. Besides violating the environment law, they are also not observing the Hospital Waste Management Rules 2005 regarding waste collection, segregation, storage and transportation.

The hospital waste is being disposed of unhygienically, which is resulting in recycle and re-use of infectious medical supplies like syringes, blood and urine bags and spread of diseases like hepatitis.

Under the hospital management rules, yellow-bagged waste shall be disposed of after burning, burial in a landfill or any other method approved by the federal or provincial agency concerned.

The radioactive waste shall either be disposed in the landfill site or incinerated. The hospital staff shall be properly trained for cleaning contaminated areas.

A hospital must be equipped with adequate cleaning equipment, protective clothing and waste bags.

Sanitary, staff and sweepers shall wear protective clothing like face marks, industrial aprons, leg protectors, industrial boots and heavy-duty gloves.