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Moot on Indus delta concludes
ALL big projects and schemes, such as coastal highway and coconut and shrimp farming should be commissioned only after carrying out comprehensive environment studies to assess their impact on ecology mainly livestock and habitats. This was recommended at the concluding session of a five-day workshop on “Indus delta ecoregion: biodiversity visioning and conservation planning”, organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature, Pakistan, in Karachi on July 16. The experts participating in the workshop said these schemes appeared attractive in the beginning but they could destroy environment and livelihood of local communities.
The WWF-Pakistan Director General, Ali Hassan Habib, cited the examples of Malaysia and Sri Lanka where shrimp and palm oil farming had brought ecological hazards like destruction of forests, livestock and habitats. He said that in response to the Sindh Additional Secretary for Planning and Development, Ghulam Sarwar Khero, who said that the provincial government would revive a mega shrimp farming project spread over 18,000 acres, which was earlier abandoned due to non-utilization of the allocated land.
The Additional Chief Secretary for Planning and Development, Ghulam Sarwar Khero said that the provincial government had invested Rs481 million in various projects to preserve and improve ecology of Indus delta. Ten projects were in progress while another two were in the offing, he said. For these new projects, he added, Rs48 million had been allocated to the forest department. For the conservation of the Indus dolphin, he said that he had already presented the proposal to launch PILER project in Sukkur with arrangements for people to see these distinct species.
The WWF-Pakistan Deputy Director-general, Dr Ejaz Ahmed, told the audience 13 Indus blind dolphins were rescued during the last three years. He said that there was dire need to identify the extinct and endangered species and information related to them must be circulated among area people in their local languages.
At the concluding session, a steering committee on Indus delta ecoregion action programme was also formed. Giving an overview of the action programme, WWF-Pakistan policy division chief Faisal Farooq Khan announced that the provincial water, irrigation and power departments, besides the Wapda, the Indus River System Authority (Irsa), the World Bank, and the WWF-Pakistan would be the members of the steering committee. More departments would be included over the period of time as and when required, he said. Sindh Additional Chief Secretary for Planning and Development Ghulam Sarwar Khero would be heading the committee to ensure coordination among the member government departments.
Liver transplant
The Institute of Child Health and Children's Hospital surgeons claim to have conducted the first-ever successful liver transplant in the country. However, 14-month-old Ali Adnan died after 40 hours of the surgery.
The surgery team, led by Prof Shaukat, had conducted the eight-hour operation on July 12. A general team, led by Dr Yawar Saeed, associate professor of surgery at the Allama Iqbal Medical College and the Jinnah Hospital, had simultaneously conducted a six-hour successful operation of Ali’s maternal uncle Tauheed, who had agreed to donate a piece of his liver.
River water pollution
The director-general, Environmental Protection Agency, Sindh, Mohammad Younus Dagha, has issued show-cause notices to industries located in the SITE, Kotri, as their effluents exceeded the National Environmental Quality Standard as prescribed under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency Act 1997.
Untreated effluents discharged directly into the Kotri Barrage Feeder pollute the water supplied for human consumption from Kotri to Karachi.
The Sindh EPA, during it routine detailed monitoring of the industries located at Kotri SITE, to check their level of compliance to the NEQS, as prescribed under the PEPA 1997, had collected a wide range of water samples from the area.
Wind energy project
At a wind energy project presentation on July 16 in Karachi, Sindh Chief Secretary Aslam Sanjrani said that development of energy sources and health infrastructure, promotion of education, repair and expansion of roads are included among the priorities through which a headway can be achieved for solution to social problems and improvement of economic affairs. He made these observations at a presentation given at a high level meeting regarding a 100 MW Wind Energy Project.
The presentation was arranged by the Alternate Energy Development Board, Prime Minister Secretariat.
The AEDB plans to install a 100 MW wind energy project at Sindh's coastal area, preferably Gharo in Thatta, which would initially operate as a pilot project, later increasing its capacity to 500 MW. — Sci-tech World Report
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