September 01, 2007	Saturday	Sha’aban 18, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 31: The unauthorised expansion of the capital city’s industrial area continues unchecked adding known and unknown hazards to health of the citizens as industrial pollutants concentrate in the air right under the nose of official monitoring agencies and clearly in violation of existing laws against environmental degradation.

The Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EAP) and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) monitor any new construction that may be hazardous for the health of the citizens.

Residents of nearby sectors complain that the industrial estate is expanding. “We have been regularly complaining individually as well collectively to the CDA and Pak-EPA, but our complaints have proved futile,” said Mr Tippu, who lives in the I-9 sector.

Pak-EPA has recently been active with its latest monitoring equipment in an effort to control pollution in the area but its work has not gone beyond collection of data on current levels of pollution.

A senior official at the agency also confirmed to Dawn that only recently two re-rolling units have added furnaces to their machinery. The official said the agency had informed CDA about it. Other units have also expanded their businesses.

There are 115 units of various industries, including eight steel melting furnaces, 11 re-rolling mills, 25 flour mills, five oil and ghee mills, 31 marble cutting and polishing units and 23 metal working and engineering units in the industrial estate in I-9 and I-10 sectors.

A recent Pak-EPA exercise has confirmed the high levels of hazardous particles in the air which could cause various respiratory diseases. Various ambient air quality parameters such as CO, NOx, SOx, particulate matter, total suspended particulates (TSP), etc., were monitored to assess the status of ambient air in the area.

While almost all industrial units are adding to pollution, eight steel melting units are held mainly responsible for doing the greatest damage to the environment.

Supreme Court has also taken suo motu notice of the increased air pollution in Islamabad and directed both the CDA and Pak-EAP to take adequate measures to control the problem. There is no dearth of laws to reign in threatening polluters. However, due to the lack of commitment on the part of Pak-EPA and CDA, the problem is getting out of hand.

Under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (Pepa), if the agency is convinced that the discharge or emission of any effluent, waste, air pollutant, noise, waste disposal, handling of hazardous substances or any other act is likely to occur or has occurred in violation of the provisions of the environment act, an environmental protection order (EPO) can be issued under which a fine of up to Rs1 million can be imposed on the violator and in case of continued violation, an additional fine of Rs100,000 could be enforced for every single day the contraventions continue.

Similarly, if the environmental tribunal is satisfied with the agency’s observations it can sentence a factory owner for a jail term which may be extended to two years.

Likewise, the CDA has also a set of laws to stop anyone from challenging its writ. So far, however, these laws decorate the legal literature only and have not been enforced.