August 08, 2008	Friday	Sha’aban 5, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 7: The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) has so far been unable to play any significant role as a regulatory authority in the province reportedly owing to scarcity of human, financial and logistic resources.

Solid waste management, treatment of industrial and domestic effluents, hospital waste management, marine pollution, and vehicular emission, management of water and land resources, oil and gas exploration and operation of power plants were the sectors that required intervention for improvement, but the environment agency had failed to come up to the expectations, admitted a Sepa official.

The official requesting anonymity said that the reason behind the inefficient working of the environmental body was scarce resources, which were required for a smooth and effective functioning of such types of organisations. He said that had the Sepa been provided with the requisites it could have acted as a facilitator for all the sectors, which would ultimately have had helped improve the deteriorated environment of the province.

Despite reminders and requests, the Sindh government had been unable to effectively address the issue of a lack of expertise and a shortage of relevant human resources, he said, adding that most of the sanctioned posts of technical personnel and field officers in Sepa had been lying vacant for long.

Seventy per cent of the sanctioned posts of technical personnel and field officers in the Sepa had been lying vacant, while on the other hand due to poor working conditions, even a couple of capable personnel could not continue discharging their responsibilities effectively, he elaborated.

In Karachi, the Sepa had been able to, somehow, manage its headquarters, while the regional offices in Hyderabad and Sukkur had very little staff, said another official.

He deplored that the high-ups in the environment agency and its controlling departments were also not up to the mark when it came to pursue the Sindh Public Service Commission regarding the recruitment of officers against the budgeted posts.

It was learnt that the agency in question was also failing to submit cases of environmental rules’ violations with the environmental protection tribunal adequately due to its lacking on the monitoring and prosecution sides, obviously in the absence of technical and legal experts.

When contacted the newly-posted director-general of the Sepa, Dr Mohammad Ali Sheikh, told Dawn that he had been apprised that only four deputy directors and six assistant directors were available against the sanctioned eleven deputy directors and 20 assistant directors posts, while the three posts of directors had been lying vacant.

“We also do not have the government sanctioned strength of environmental inspectors”, he said.

“After assuming the charges of my office, now I have sent a request to the SPSC, requesting it to expedite the recruitment process regarding various posts for which the Sepa has submitted requisitions to it in the past”, Mr Sheikh said, adding that a better staff and expert positioning was mandatory for the enforcement of environmental laws and an effective working of the Sepa.

He said that the work regarding establishment of an exclusive website for the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) was also under way and the agency would soon start uploading the cases pertaining to the environmental impact assessment on the website for public information and enhancement of experts’ inputs and comments of stakeholders related to various development projects.

Talking about his plan, he said that he believed that only an integrated and scientific approach could help address the environmental issues properly and that was why, besides an improved awareness level among masses and the stakeholders, he would move the heads of educational institutions, including the universities colleges and schools, for establishment of environmental clubs involving students.