KARACHI: How the entire process to hear out public concerns over the city’s major infrastructural projects has turned into a farce became obvious once again on Monday when the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) organised an event in violation of its own rules and regulations.

The proceedings saw heated arguments from many participants including social activists, journalists, consultants of the project, and its proponent, mainly because Sepa organised the event without doing its basic homework, a practice which has become a norm at the department.

The public hearing pertained to the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of Jinnah Heavens, a ground-plus-10-floor building planned to be built at Plot No. 21 of Sector 53-A, Deh Dozan Tappo Gujro, located in the jurisdiction of Malir Cantonment Board (MCB).

EIA report shared on project contained discrepancies and violated several Sepa regulations

Like most public hearings, Sepa allowed the project proponent to share an EIA report which contained discrepancies and lacked the mandatory no-objection certificates from various utilities, thereby violating Section 9 and Section 17 (3) of Sepa regulations.

According to these rules, every EIA report shall be accompanied by no-objection certificates from relevant departments and “every review of an EIA shall be carried out with public participation and subject to the provisions of this act, after full disclosure of the particulars of the project.”

The absence of NOCs from utility services, stakeholders feared, would cause lots of problems once the project is completed, for prospective apartment buyers as well as other Karachiites already facing serious shortages of water, gas and electricity, among other issues.

Dr Syed Raza Gardezi of Citizens for Environment argued that Sepa was responsible for ensuring that the EIA document “was comprehensive, factual and free of discrepancies” before it was uploaded on its website.

“However, this is not the case as contrary to what’s described in the EIA report as a purely residential project (Jinnah Heavens), the MCB approval dated Nov 23, 2018 states that the ‘proposed sanctioned building consisted of commercial/residential floors’.”

“When was this plot commercialised and where is its NOC for commercialisation? Secondly, the plot area as mentioned in the EIA report is 8,712.80 square yards whereas MCB approval per annexure 1 is for 1.32 acres, which comes to about 6,388.8 square yards,” he said, pointing to the difference of 2,324 square yards.

Seconding these arguments, some participants questioned Sepa officials over their ineptitude and asked them to prepare a checklist as per the rules to have more constructive discussions in hearings.

None of the Sepa officials led by director Ashique Ali Langha, however, could offer plausible explanations to these objections. His defence was: “We have noted down your concerns and will take them up in the expert committee meeting at the next stage. Rest assured that Sepa’s approval will only be for a residential project.”

To a question as to why Sepa held public hearings without vetting the EIA reports, Mr Langha said: “The department faces issues of capacity-building and staff shortage. We are also being groomed (through these public hearings).”

There was also a call for cancelling the public hearing on grounds that Sepa should come up with “full, factual information” on the project and also take clearance from the National Accountability Bureau which, it was shared, had sealed numerous projects on Jinnah Avenue (the same road on which Jinnah Heavens is located) for being illegal and built on encroached land.

Builders defend project

The failure of Sepa to properly handle proceedings and aptly reply to public concerns led to commotion during the event and most questions directed towards Sepa officials were taken up by the project consultants and the proponent.

On the plot’s nature, representatives of M/S Prime Properties, the builders proposing the project, disclosed that it’s a commercial plot but the project was purely residential. A high-rise couldn’t be built on a residential plot and the MCB left inclusion of commercial components on the project proponent’s discretion, they argued.

About NOCs, it was explained that “all utilities do not give an NOC until a structure is built which is first surveyed and later the connection is approved.

“Hence, applications have been sent to them, which would be approved in due time,” said Shahid Lutfi representing the Environmental Consultancy Service (ECS), which conducted the project’s EIA. He added that approvals from Pakistan Air Force and Civil Aviation Authority had been taken.

To a question relating to the plot size, he said that designs and maps attached with the EIA report clearly stated that the plot size was 1 acre 32 gunta (8,712.80 sq yards).

Earlier, Mr Lutfi gave a presentation on the project according to which the ground and first floors would be reserved for parking and second to seventh floors for a total number of 126 flats plus circulation area. The key features of the project include a firefighting system, emergency exits, a reverse osmosis (RO) plant and a solar system of 55kW.

The question regarding disposal of toxic RO waste into Malir River was ignored.

No official of MCB was present at the hearing.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2019