KARACHI: The Supreme Court-mandated commission on water and sanitation in Sindh has directed sugar mills to install effluent treatment plants before the crushing season 2019-20 begins.

The commission, headed by former Supreme Court judge Amir Hani Muslim, warned that the sugar mills in Sindh must strictly follow the timeline and if the effluent treatment plants were not made functional before the upcoming crushing season, the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) would seal such industrial units.

On Monday, the commission was informed that Sepa had approved the initial environmental examinations regarding installation of treatment plants and handed them to the sugar mills concerned. It was further told that Seri Sugar Mill was non-functional and, therefore, did not need a treatment plant.

Subsequently, Justice Muslim directed the owner or any authorised officer of the mill to submit an undertaking that they would only make the sugar mill functional after the installation of an effluent treatment plant in terms of Sepa rules and in case of non-compliance, the industrial unit would face closure.

In a previous hearing, the commission was informed that the industries had processed their cases for the installation of effluent treatment plants through a firm, Technology Provider, and they would complete the assignment within the timeline agreed between the parties.

However, the commission had warned that any non-compliance on part of the firm would not absolve the industries from consequences.

In August, the commission had ordered Dr Ghulam Murtaza of the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources for inspection of all sugar mills and distilleries with officials of Sepa across the province to suggest installation of treatment plants for effluent. Later, the inspection report was handed over to Sepa to finalise it.

The report said that there were 38 sugar mills in Sindh and 37 were functional, adding that treatment plants in four sugar mills had already been in place while the remaining industrial units were required to install effluent treatment plants.

Meanwhile, the commission granted a firm two-day time to submit an undertaking that it would make functional the 59 reverse osmosis plants it had installed in various districts of Sindh after the project director and chief engineer of the public health engineering department informed it about the status of Clean Drinking Water for All plants installed by the private firm.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2019