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NO gadgets or scientific studies are needed to ascertain that the sea that skirts Karachi is heavily polluted. A walk on the sand is often rendered nauseating by not just the variety of waste left behind by the receding waters, but also the vast amount of it. At times, it is as though the waves, having ingested all they possibly can of the poison, cannot take any more and must in desperation throw it back at humanity’s feet.
What floats in the water and collects on the beaches is solid waste, a large amount of it plastics that, around the world, are poisoning the oceans. Once in the deep, they will last an eternity; worse, even when the natural churning of the environment they are in breaks them down into smaller and smaller pieces, these pieces will get eaten by marine life that will consequently end up sick.
According to research conducted by the marine pollution control authorities in 2015, some 8,000 tons of solid waste are either directly dumped into or end up in Karachi’s harbour every day — waste from thousands of unmonitored industrial operations, and waste generated as the city’s approximately 20 million souls go about their daily business without the benefit of much civic infrastructure.
Sepa has been given a bad name for not enforcing the law.
This form of pollution is obvious and worrying enough. But the mischief really starts with the poison that cannot be seen. Also concluded by the marine pollution control authorities is the fact that over 500 million gallons of raw sewage or untreated industrial waste empty into the harbour daily. In 2014, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board prepared a situation report that revealed that some 90 per cent of the city’s sewerage is discharged straight into the sea for reasons that include an aging, ragged and insufficient sewage system and the growth of unplanned settlements.
Last year, the federal minister for ports and fishing, Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, became interested and, as a result, in December the ministry set up a three-member committee to compile a report on the progress of a ‘mega-sewage scheme’ that was apparently being executed to save the sea.
What happened to that committee and that report we never got to hear of. But on Feb 17 came the news that the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) had ordered the closure of six industrial units for violating environmental protection laws and releasing untreated effluent into the Lyari and Malir rivers that discharge into the Indian Ocean.
The law requires that effluent must be treated so that it meets the National Environmental Quality Standards, failing which Section 11 of the Sindh Environmental Protection Act 2014 is considered having been violated. This prescribes heavy penalties or prison terms for the management of the violating units, and the closure of the premises.
Sepa has been given a bad name for not managing to enforce the law. But a quick web search throws up several news items reporting that a handful of units here, another handful there, have been closed down as a result of being in violation of environmental laws.
And yet the problem is not going away; in fact, it is increasing. In 2015, the estimated liquid waste being dumped into the sea from Karachi stood at 350 million gallons, as opposed to over 500 million gallons referred to by Mr Bizenjo in December.
Much became clear on Thursday, when industry managements of seven industrial estates threatened to go on strike if Sepa did not withdraw notices it had sent them regarding compliance with the environmental law. At a combined news conference, they said that most of these industries had been set up before 2014, when the law came into being, so there had been nothing with which they should have complied.
They also said that setting up the effluent treatment plants should be the responsibility of not just the Sindh government, but also the federal government. The former, reportedly, earmarked land for setting up five combined effluent treatment plants, and a PC-1 indicating a cost of Rs11 billion had been submitted to it in March last year, but nothing had happened since then. Only one effluent treatment plant was set up 15 years ago, but, they said, it was not functional — though it could be made so with some investment.
The problem, then, is Pakistan’s most common plague: that measures taken to improve a situation are half-baked, and there is a failure on part of various agencies involved and concerned to act in concert. In this case, passing the law and even enforcing it to the point of forcing closures was only half the battle. The other was making available facilities for alternative, legal courses of action, which remains undone.
How the face-off between law and industry ultimately plays out remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Karachi’s waters will not be getting any respite anytime soon.
The writer is a member of staff.
Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2017
