RAWALPINDI: The Punjab Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has not conducted a survey of the garrison city for air and noise pollution in the last four years and its environment analysis laboratory for the Rawalpindi district has also not been started.

The Punjab government had established environment analysis laboratories in the big cities of the province including Rawalpindi in order to check air and noise pollution, water contamination and environment degradation activities in and around the district.

The laboratory in Rawalpindi was set up at Peshawar Road but there was no staff to man it.

Environment analysis lab set up in Rawalpindi has not been started either, EPA staff deployed in anti-dengue drives

A senior official of the District Rawalpindi EPA said that after the 18th Amendment, the provinces had to keep a check on environment degradation, but no such efforts were made.

“Staff of the environment department was deputed for the anti-dengue campaigns and left the work unattended,” he said.

“Two environment deputy directors have been changed in the last two months and there is no one on the post at present,” he said, adding that environment inspectors do not work properly in the absence of a deputy director.

When contacted, Environment Inspector Maqbool Hussain said that work on checking environment degradation was being done in routine while the department was also paying attention to the anti-dengue campaign.

However, he said a survey of the air and noise pollution in the city and garrison areas had not been conducted for the last few years and that the department did not have the facility to check water pollution.

Meanwhile, in order to raise awareness regarding environmental challenges, the National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC) Rawalpindi organised an event for World Environment Day 2018 in collaboration with the Attock Refinery and the Environment Protection Agency of the Ministry of Climate Change.

NCPC Coordinator Irshad Ramay highlighted the environmental challenges the world is facing and emphasised that all individuals have to play their role in making the world a better place to live in.

He said Pakistan is among the top ten countries which had been badly affected by the changes in the weather patterns.

The presenters in the seminar were Ahmed Talal from the Attock Refinery, NCPC’s Sana Tahir and EPA’s Abdul Islam. The speakers presented different statistics regarding plastic pollution on international and national levels. Water scarcity and climate change were also discussed.

The speakers emphasises on raising awareness and on everyone playing a part in mitigating the effects of climate change.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2018