KARACHI: What seemed to be a mockery of the public hearing process, the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) took up three projects for discussion on Thursday, once again in violation of its own rules, and blamed the Sindh Information Department for not properly publicising the event.

Surprisingly, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies of all the three proposed projects had been prepared by Envir­on­mental Management Consul­tants (EMC) Pakistan Limited that also conducted the various environmental analyses at the project sites.

Two of these projects were proposed in the Port Qasim area; the 220 kV double circuit K-Electric transmission line from 450 megawatts Engro power plant to the new Port Qasim grid station and the development of what was described as the largest oil terminal at Port Qasim of 206,000 tonnes capacity by Hascol Terminals Limited.

The third proposed project, a K-Electric venture, pertained to laying a 132 kV underground single circuit transmission line from the Jacob Lines grid station to the Gizri grid station.

How much Sepa valued the public hearing process was evident from their haste at the programme as they allowed back-to-back presentations on the two K-Electric projects, without giving separate time for question-answer.

They wanted to go ahead with another presentation on the third project but changed their mind when this mockery of the hearing process was pointed out from the audience.

Replying to concerns over holding three public hearings simultaneously and its failure in ensuring prior publicity of the event, Sepa officials, represented by additional director general S.M. Yahya and deputy director Imran Sabir, held the press information department responsible for the delay in publication of public hearing notices and their choice of newspapers (whose circulation was so low that it defeated the purpose of inviting general public to the event).

This delay, they argued, had resulted in long delays in approving projects through legal formalities. If public hearings were not held in time, the project proponent could get a chance under the law that their projects should be considered approved.

“We don’t want to cause inconvenience to the public, that’s why we thought it’s wise to hold three public hearings together,” Mr Yahya contended.

He, however, didn’t explain why stakeholders consulted during the EIA process were not invited to the public hearings, which, these days, largely consisted of officials representing the project proponent, Sepa and students. There was hardly any representation from the media.

As the programme took off, K-Electric officials gave a detailed presentation on their ongoing corporate social responsibility activities whereas the EMC representatives shared salient features of the EIA reports of the three projects and declared them safe, if all suggested mitigation measures were properly implemented.

During the question-answer session which was held in two parts, the audience raised a number of questions, including their concerns relating to any damage to the existing infrastructure during work on the transmission lines as well as lack of approvals from relevant departments, which were mandatory under the law and needed to be acquired before holding a public hearing.

Zubair Ahmed Abro, an environmental lawyer, referred to Sepa regulations and asked whether the environmental watchdog had issued a “certificate of completeness of the EIA report” before holding the public hearing. He, however, couldn’t get a satisfactory reply.

The environmental watchdog was also questioned why it was taking up more and more projects in the Port Qasim area given the fact the relevant authority didn’t bother to reply to the former’s letters and hadn’t yet submitted the cumulative impact assessment study of its whole industrial area that it was asked to do a year ago.

Sepa officials seemed speechless when they were asked about the coal projects which, it was pointed out, had been made operational in the Port Qasim area without acquiring its approval and that whether the department would shut down the different upcoming projects if the pending cumulative study came negative.

“The Port Qasim Authority is at fault. Everybody knows that the authority lacks system to treat the sewage being generated in its industrial area and it is polluting the sea,” said Saquib Ejaz Hussain of the EMC while responding to questions over environmental degradation in the Port Qasim area.

One of the major concerns relating to the Hascol oil terminal was its safe operation. Its presentation lacked the risk assessment of a worst case scenario.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2017