THIS is with reference to the report ‘Farmers hit by Ravi project dig in heels’ (March 29). People, including the writer and environmental activists, are sitting in the cities with no knowledge of the ground reality in the villages or the environmental impact studies for any project.

There is no consultant registration process in the environment protection department (EPD) in Punjab. Any consulting firm with at least one environmental engineer can submit the critical environmental impact assessment (EIA) report.

The EPD has requirements/guidelines to furnish an EIA report. Whether you hire a local or a foreign consulting firm, the report that needs to be generated remains the same. After getting higher education from the United States and working for over 25 years with international consulting firms, I can say with complete confidence that foreigners are not more qualified than Pakistanis who get hired to do their work.

Our basic engineering knowledge is way more than what American universities teach there. Putting some foreigners’ name on the EIA report does not make the report a perfect environmental assessment.

Every farmer — including myself as I am now managing my agricultural lands in Khanewal district — is happy to sell his agricultural land if the price is right since farming is unable to meet his needs owing to higher prices of agricultural inputs, like fertilisers, seeds, etc.

Farmers affected by the said project are raising a hue and cry just to get the right price. A housing scheme in Multan recently cut mango orchards for development; no one complained. And no one complained because the farmers concerned had sold their lands/orchards to the developers. No one had forced them to do that. They had their own reasons.

If the government does not acquire land for the Ravi Riverfront Urban Project today, we will see private housing societies there within 10 years anyway.

I think the government should pay the right price to the farmers affected by the project and the EPD should analyse EIA submitted by the authority in good faith and implement environmental mitigations discussed in the report.

Tanveer Sahoo
Lahore

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2021