KARACHI: Can the city of Karachi plagued by continued crises of basic amenities and facing serious environmental issues bear to have more high-rises?

This question was raised multiple times at a public hearing organised on Friday at a local hotel by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa).

The hearing pertained to the environmental impact assessment (EIA) study of LaCasa One, a ground-plus-21 floor residential-cum-commercial project with four towers proposed near Lucky One shopping mall in Federal B Area.

It was the first hearing of a high-rise project after the Supreme Court lifted the ban on the construction of multistorey buildings in Karachi.

The hearing started off with a presentation on the project by Saquib Hussain of Environmental Consultants Company, which conducted the EIA study of the project proposed to be built over an area of 3,600 square yards.

He claimed that the project proponents had obtained relevant no-objection certificates, including those required from utility agencies including K-Electric and Sui Southern Gas Company. None of the NOCs, however, had been uploaded with project’s EIA report on display on Sepa’s website.

“The EIA report was uploaded on Sepa’s website on Jan 9, 2019, mere eight days before the hearing. This goes against the fundamentals of Section 11(6) and the principles of holding public hearings. The department should have given ample and fair opportunity to study the report and come up with valid objections,” said Syed Ali Raza Gardezi representing Citizens for Environment, a non-governmental organisation.

He also raised concerns related to water, gas and electricity supply to the project in the absence of any commitments from utility agencies.

It came as a shock to most participants when Mr Gardezi disclosed that the project proponents had shown absolute disregard for Sepa rules by starting construction work even before applying for Sepa approval and had also initiated booking process.

According to Sepa rules, “No proponent of a project shall commence construction or operation unless he has filed with the agency an initial environmental examination or environmental impact assessment and has obtained from the agency approval in respect thereof”.

Defending the project proponents (LaCasa Builders and Developers) on this point, the EMC representatives said that though the project proponent did start construction before acquiring EIA approval, they stopped it later on Sepa’s instructions after which the study was conducted.

The booking process, the project developers argued, had been initiated after “acquiring permission from the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA)”.

The violation apparently went without any penalty by Sepa as their representatives couldn’t give any satisfactory reply when asked about it.

Sepa was asked to protect public’s interest and put an advertisement in newspapers warning the public that no approval had been given to the project as yet and people should not invest until it was approved.

Questions were also raised over the plot’s status shown as commercial in the EIA report but was stated to be “actually industrial”, and Sepa was asked to investigate the plot’s status and its conversion.

Replying to these concerns, additional director general of Sepa Naeem Mughal admitted lack of coordination among departments (Sepa and SBCA) and said that under the law SBCA was bound to consult Sepa before approving any project.

In his opinion, the massive commercialisation of Karachi’s roads had created the “havoc the city is experiencing right now”. He told the audience that the department would take up the matter with organisations/agencies concerned.

Stakeholders, who raised pertinent concerns over the city’s increasing density amid increasing environmental pollution and crises of basic amenities in Karachi, including water, gas, electricity, transport and sanitation system, did not receive any satisfactory reply.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2019