SAHIWAL: Local farmers have expressed serious concern over the damage being caused to their land and crops because of the effluents being discharged by a private fertilizer factory that was also resulting in severe environmental pollution, reduced yields and poor air quality in the surrounding areas of 4/10-L and 6/11-L villages of Harrapa.

The farmers said that despite lodging multiple complaints with the district administration against the fertilizer plant having capacity to produce 10,000 bags of granulated single super phosphate, 500 ton single super phosphate and a huge quantity of sulfuric acid per day, no action was taken.

Confirming the environmental damage being caused by the unit, Umeera Shamshad, Assistant Director, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said experts had conducted site inspection which clearly showed “adverse environmental effects”.

Quoting experts, she said that there was “no proper disposal of solid and liquid waste being discharged from Sulfuric acid manufacturing units of the factory and ashes from two boilers,” adding that leakage of sulfuric acid and ammonia was causing severe environmental damage.

Suraj Fertilizer Industries (pvt) Limited was established in 2009 on agricultural land between 4/10-L and 6/11-L villages, covering 75,148 Sq-metre. The unit employs 200 workers who work inside the plant.

Two separate no objection certificates (NOCs) for the plant’s construction and later operational phase were issued by Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), director, Lahore, explaining standard operating procedures (SOPs) under Section 12 of the Punjab Environment Protection Act -1997, amended in 2012 on May 25, 2010 and September 11, 2018, respectively.

A farmer, Zafar Rehman, a resident of 4/10-L, who has cultivated cotton crop over 30 acres of land near the plant complained that chemicals and gasses, including sulfur dioxide (SO2), sulfur (H2SO4) and ammonia (NH3) were being discharged by the plant and damaging land and environment in its vicinity, resulting in reduced crop yield.

Similarly, the farmers having land near the plant including - Imran Bhuular of 6/11-L, who cultivates maize crop on 16 acres, Ashfaq Gondal of 6/10-L, cotton on 12 acres and Shabbir Khan of 10/11-L, who sows cotton on 17 acres complained of reduced crop yield by 30-40 percent, blaming the untreated chemical discharges from the plant.

The farmers said a few days back leakage of sulfuric acid from the plant had damaged the crops.

Confirming the incident, Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Inspector Zahid Iftikhar, he had visited the factory and found its machinery rusted, causing leakage of chemicals.

“One can feel the pungent smell of chemicals even a kilometre away from the plant,” said farmer Imran Bhullar.

Some of the local farmers said during 2012 they had jointly lodged a complaint with the EPA, Lahore, pointing out the damage being caused to their land because of the plant but to no avail.

Sources said as the factory had no neutralisation or treatment plant for safe disposal of effluents being discharged by it the waste water containing hazardous chemicals was stored in ponds outside its boundary wall which was contaminating the groundwater.

A source told Dawn that the factory workers were not provided with any kind of safety gadgets, including masks, gloves, safety shoes etc to keep them safe from the poisonous chemicals they had to handle at their workpalce.

EPA Assistant Director Ms Umera said the circumstances clearly indicate that the plant management was violating Section 2(i), PEPA 1997 (amended 2012).

Sources said the district administration had written a letter to the agriculture department asking it to inspect the area in the vicinity of the plant and submit a report to verify if there was any crop damage caused by the factory effluents. The report was still awaited, they added.

Suraj Fertilizer Industries (pvt) Limited General Manager Touseef Gillani admitted there were issues of “machinery maintenance” at the unit, claiming the management was “fixing the problems”.

He admitted local farmers had reservations and they had lodged complaints to district government and the EPA in this regard.

The farmers demanded that complete Environmental Impact Assessment of the plant must be conducted immediately and the authorities concerned should ensure that the plant’s machinery was properly maintained according to the SOPs.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2019