KARACHI: Three recent public hearings of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), which the department had organised with scant public participation, were challenged on Wednesday through a legal notice.

The notice served to Sepa by a law firm called upon the department to reject the environmental impact assessment reports (EIAs) presented during the hearings and reorganise the hearings in a transparent manner.

The hearings pertained to three important projects: a ground plus 22-floor residential-cum-commercial project proposed adjacent to the Ocean Mall and Tower in Clifton; a Liquefied Natural Gas import terminal proposed in the Port Qasim area and an automobile assembly plant proposed near Baqai Medical University and Hospital in Gadap Town.

“We are surprised to see how inaptly Sepa reviews the EIA reports of development projects. It seems that its staff does not have the knowledge and capacity or even degree in professional disciplines to investigate the reliability of the data presented in the EIA documents,” the legal notice addressed to Sepa director general and sent by Zubair Ahmed Abro Law Associates says.

“It is noted with concern that Sepa deliberately conducted public hearings in the end of Ramazan just to avoid proper public participation which is a mandatory requirement of the EIA review process,” it further says.

It refers to Section 10 of the 2014 Sepa regulations according to which the department must conduct ‘preliminary scrutiny’ to confirm that the EIA document is complete for purpose of initiation of (public) review. This process, the notice says, was not followed.

“Had it been done, the agency should have insisted that all environmental issues be assessed in detail, technical studies and accurate analyses be conducted and detailed mitigation measures finalised in advance,” it says.

According to the notice, the hearings were called on three consecutive days (June 20, June 21 and June 22) respectively with scant public attendance. The EIA documents of these projects were not uploaded on Sepa’s website till June 18.

“The EIA reports presented in the public hearings were full of flaws and lacked realistic data. For example, the EIA report of the high-rise building mentioned wrong data on water supply and sewerage system, air quality and status of environment.

“The EIA report of automobile assembly plant was challenged by experts in the hearing as the project has been proposed in a residential area. The EIA report on the LNG terminal was presented for public discussion, though a technical study on the selection of its site hadn’t been performed by the project proponent, a mandatory requirement under the LNG policy 2011 and Port Qasim Authority requirements.”

The firm regrets that the department’s working has worsened rather than improving after a Supreme Court commission investigating water and pollution issues took notice of its irregularities and subsequently Sepa’s director general was removed.

“We request you to reject these EIA reports, direct the proponents to resubmit proper documents and then hold public hearings of these projects in a transparent manner. Take notice that if public hearings were not held again, we shall be constrained to challenge the actions of Sepa at appropriate forums,” the notice concludes.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2017