KARACHI: Representatives of various industries and trade organisations were asked on Tuesday to ensure speedy progress on the installation of waste-water treatment plants in their industrial units.

Sindh Minister for Environment and Climate Change Taimur Talpur said at a meeting attended by representatives of industrial associations of Sindh, Karachi Port Trust, cantonment boards, Sindh Solid Waste Management Board and Sindh Building Control Authority that all stakeholders should play their part in the improvement of environment.

He said that effluent treatment plants were need of the hour and a process should be initiated on a war-footing to make progress on this issue.

The meeting was held to discuss implementation of the recommendations of Supreme Court-mandated commission on water, particularly those pertaining to the installation of waste-water treatment plants/septic tanks at all industrial units.

The minister also spoke about government’s commitment on this issue and the meeting’s objectives. “We are here today not to confront but to facilitate each other and all the stakeholders concerned including all the government departments to comply with the directives of honourable commission pertaining to the construction of combined effluent plants in industrial zones and all other areas under the administrative control of different organisations,” he said.

President of North Karachi Industrial Association Zubair Motiwala said that people were ready to implement the commission’s directives not under any compulsion but because of the fact that it was a legal binding on industrialists to fulfil export requirements.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2019