KARACHI: Ignoring the fact that no consensus has been developed among stakeholders on a controversial coal project of the Port Qasim Authority (PQA), the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) is set to hold a meeting of its experts’ committee on the project on Wednesday, sources have told Dawn.

According to the sources, experts’ committee meeting is usually the last step before final project approval which is often granted, with some conditions.

Currently, the two multi-billion PQA projects pending Sepa approval are a coal transshipment project (scheduled to be taken up in the experts’ committee) and the other of a coal conveying system.

Both the projects had been strongly opposed at public hearings, with the result that Sepa had to direct the PQA to hold meetings with relevant stakeholders, industrialists operating several units in the project area being a major stakeholder among them, in order to find a way forward.

According to the sources, only one meeting of the PQA, Bin Qasim Association of Trade & Industry (BQATI) and some selected environmentalists has been held after the Sepa directive to the PQA at the public hearings of the two projects.

The PQA convened a meeting on Nov 11 that remained inconclusive, the sources said, adding that it was decided that another meeting would be held. “But that meeting was twice postponed and we couldn’t develop any set of recommendations based on our concerns,” said Abdur Rehman Ismail representing the BQATI.

Hr argued as to how Sepa would address concerns of industrialists when they were not invited to the experts’ committee meeting scheduled to be held on Wednesday.

His association, he said, had been waiting for a call from the PQA to develop some recommendations on the projects with environmentalists’ help. The BQATI had shared concerns at least four times with Sepa director general in writing over the past four months. But Sepa never replied, he added.

Sharing his concerns, Zubair Abro, an environmental lawyer, said Sepa had agreed at a past public hearing that the PQA would get a cumulative study done for the projects coming up in its jurisdiction. “Since such a study hasn’t been shared with the public and approved by Sepa, why the agency is approving more projects in the PQA jurisdiction and that, too, those which are bound to have serious environmental impact,” he said.

On the legal side, he said the PQA master plan must be amended, revised and approved first to accommodate development projects. A change in a master plan or government policy, he said, required strategic environmental assessment under Section 18 of Sepa Act, 2014.

Citing the case of Ms Imrana Tiwana who had challenged the signal-free corridor project in Lahore, Advocate Abro said the Supreme Court had held last year that the formation of an advisory (experts’) committee under Section 5(6) of the environmental protection act was mandatory on the provincial government. The court, he said, declared that the committee was meant to assist the EPA in evaluating environmental impact of projects under consideration.

“After this decision, the authority to form the experts’ committee for project under evaluation rests with the Sindh government and not with Sepa, as is the practice in the province,” the lawyer explained.

He highlighted the need for transparency in the constitution of experts’ committee that presently was completely in the hands of Sepa.

Saquib Ejaz Hussain, who is BQATI’s consultant on environmental concerns over these two projects, said the coal transshipment project was not part of PQA’s master plan and the authority couldn’t revise its plan without sharing its details with the public.

“In the presence of Pakistan International Bulk Terminal, a dedicated coal terminal in its final stages of completion designed to handle 12m to 20m tonnes of coal annually, the justification for having two separate coal berths is highly questionable. Besides, their location is in the seismically active zone, which endangers their stability.”

The EIA report of the transshipment project, he said, was incomplete since it missed out on many important details. For instance, there was no information in the report on how the coal would be transported from the port to upcountry.

“Another major concern is linked to the fact that the coal will be brought in opened mother vessels and then transported in barges through the channels. The flying dust will not only endanger marine life but will also contaminate raw material in the nearby industrial units,” he observed.

Sepa director general Naeem Ahmed Mughal said all these concerns would be taken up by the committee comprising ‘independent’ experts.

Justifying the move to keep the industrialists away from the Wednesday meeting, Mr Mughal said: “The project has already been delayed. We haven’t called industrialists since it’s a technical committee. But we have their concerns in writing.”

The proposed project to be discussed in the meeting was aimed at turning two berths of the PQA into modern coal-handling facilities. After completion of the project, the two berths are proposed to handle about 30,000 tonnes of coal a day.

The project will be developed by the Huaneng Fuyun Port and Shipping (Pvt) Ltd, a joint venture of Huaneng Shandong Ruyi (Pakistan) Energy (Pvt) Ltd and Qungdao Old Captain Shipping Company Ltd.

The project is meant to supply coal, which will be imported from South Africa, to Sahiwal where with the help of Chinese investment a coal-fired power plant has been been established as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2016