KARACHI, Aug 20: The ongoing debris-cleaning operation in the slick-hit beach areas suffered a setback on Wednesday when the DHA reportedly refused to allow further dumping of the crude oil-soaked sludge within its limit.

Following the development, different agencies engaged in the operation decided to keep the trash land layer somewhere on the beach.

Environmentalists, however, fear that keeping the waste in the open, particularly when heavy rainfall is forecast, may prompt yet more environmental and health hazards for the area people.

A source close to the beach-cleaning workers, said that the DHA had stopped the experts and environmental agency personnel, supervising the work to lift contaminated sand and other debris, from further dumping of the waste bags at a temporary site developed in depression area somewhere in DHA.

When contacted, the General Manager (Administration) of KPT, Brig Iftikhar Arshad Khan, confirmed the report by saying that the DHA, which had agreed to accept the waste temporarily on Wednesday, had expressed its inability to continue with the process considering the dumping source of major problems for the local residents.

He said that in view of stance, while the city government was yet to identify a permanent landfill, the waste collected would be kept along the sea side. We have also handed over the oil containing material to the Environmental Protection Agency for an analysis so that any concrete decision could be taken.

Sources said that oil-soaked waste and earth layer would now either be put in bags or left piled up along the beach. At present, the cleaning of beach and lifting of land is being executed by the DHA, city government and KPT.

Environmental experts viewed that the waste lying in the open could cause further damage if it rained. They further said that the debris, which had been kept in the DHA limits or likely to be put along the sea side, needed a scientific approach and treatment as they were toxic in nature.

In the meantime, when techniques are being demonstrated by experts for workers from different department involved in clean up operations, scientists and officials of the federal and provincial environment departments have criticized working of the people hired by the DHA. They noted that they were not adopting precautionary measures and, among other things, also not using long shoes provided to them for their place of work, the source added.

ITOPF SCIENTIST: Briefing newsmen at the PNSC building, the senior technical adviser to the International Tankers Owners Pollution Federation, Karen Purnell, a British national, said that her team needed more human resource and machinery for cleaning of the shoreline and dispersal of oil-polluted waste.