KARACHI, March 9: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan has called for highlighting the harms of environment, especially pollution, with the concept of social responsibilities.

He said besides at the level of schools and colleges, street theatres too can play an important role in creating awareness about environment for which a feed-back mechanism would have to be adopted.

Presiding over a meeting at the Governor’s House, Dr Ibad asked the environment department to establish a check system while making efforts in coordination with health and education departments and focus especially on water and air.

He said efforts be made for finding out causes of pollution in air and water and take steps for their removal so that people are made aware of their harmful effects and could take preventive steps at collective level.

He exhorted the officials to speed up the establishment of a helpline for environment whereby people could convey information regarding creation of pollution at a specified location.

The governor directed that a guideline be prepared regarding production of polythene bags and its undue use while owners of tanneries should also be warned to install water treatment plants or else face strict legal action.

He pointed out that tanneries were polluting water in the industrial areas which in turn was posing a grave threat to marine life.

He directed that if any tannery was found not complying with NEQS, the Environment Protection Agency should take punitive action, including imposition of fine and closure of the factory.

Dr Ibad emphasised upon a well managed system for disposal of hospital waste and said its staff should be technically sound for attainment of the desired results. He said this would help overcome many diseases, like Hepatitis and AIDS.

Highlighting the harmful effects of environmental pollution, the governor called for involvement of the environment department in cases of fitness of vehicles and said its certificate should be made compulsory at the time of issuance of fitness certificate.

He asked the officials of the department to provide necessary guidelines to people against unnecessary felling of trees in the city and for this purpose seminars and workshops on environment should be organized in schools and colleges.

He said the environment department can also create public awareness against pollution and its harms through street theatres.

The governor said that it should be made binding upon industrialists to inform the authorities as to which industry they plan to set up on industrial plot so that instances of setting up of a food industry along with an agriculture drug producing industry could be avoided.

He directed that a policy framework in this regard be chalked out at the earliest for determining proper environmental guidelines whereby people, government officers, industrialists, transport associations and officials of environment department make efforts for generating social awareness in favour of the government policy.

He said this task should be carried out phase-wise with creation of awareness in the first phase, identification of causes of pollution in the second and their control in the third phase.

In respect of production of polythene bags, Dr Ibad directed that micron size as determined by the department should be enforced gradually and phase-wise.

The meeting was attended by the Advisor on Environment, Noman Saigal, Secretary of Environment Iqbal Dewan, Director, Iqbal Saeed Khan and other senior officials.—APP