• Sepa insiders say credible and independent assessment can’t be carried out when construction is already at an advanced stage
• CM’s aide says construction won’t stop but govt has asked Sepa to examine scheme to address concerns

KARACHI: While the construction work is already in full swing, the government’s move to seek an environmental review of the Nehr-i-Khayyam rehabilitation project has failed to convince critics, with experts, even from the environmental watchdog, dismissing it as “eyewash” amid growing public pressures over the controversial work.

On Oct 26, the project manager of the Karachi mega projects had sent a letter to Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) director general, asking him to “examine” the ‘Rehabilitation of Nehr-i-Khayyam including Diversion of Sewerage Water (District South)’ scheme and share any “environmental protection requirements, mitigation measures, approvals or other actions required under the applicable environmental laws and regulations”.

The opponents of the project questioned the government’s decision to approach Sepa at this stage, arguing that the move raises more questions than it answers about the project’s planning, environmental impact and the authorities’ handling of the construction.

A senior Sepa official, who declined to be named, also expressed reservations about the move.

Meanwhile, the residents, who have opposed the construction from the outset, questioned the timing of the government’s decision. They say that the decision came too late to address their concerns.

“This is the point we have been raising from the very start: that the project was illegally designed and construction proceeded without addressing these conce­rns,” said Taimoor Ahmed, the deputy parl­­i­­a­mentary party leader of the opposition Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) in the City Council.

“Now, conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or environmental review at a stage when the construction is nearing completion will raise further questions about the purpose and effectiveness of the exercise. There are also serious concerns about how the assessment can remain impartial and free from influence when the local government department itself is alleged to have violated the rules,” he added.

The concerns were echoed by experts.

Sepa sources said it was “almost impossible” to conduct an environmental review or EIA of the project while construction work was already underway.

They argued that a credible and independent assessment cannot be carried out when construction is already at an advanced stage, leaving little room to evaluate the project’s environmental impact before the work began.

“An environmental review or EIA should assess whether the proposed shape and design of the drain can adequately accommodate the required flow. And obviously, all these factors need to be examined before construction begins,” said a Sepa source.

He highlighted the importance of water modelling in projects of this nature to assess whether the proposed design can safely accommodate the required water flow.

“And all these tasks are performed scientifically which requires data. It’s a lengthy exercise. Since Nehr-i-Khay­yam is supposed to carry rain and/or tidal water and not sewage into the open sea, the process requires the data of rainfall of past years and assessment from the meteorological experts for the future to reach any conclusion about environmental imp­act after construction,” he added.

The controversy erupted into the open a few weeks ago when environmentalists and residents’ groups gathered at the construction site on Nehr-i-Khayyam in Clifton to protest fearing “an attempt to turn the waterway into a commercial belt, including a possible food street”.

The protesters questioned the lack of publicly available project details and warned that narrowing or covering the channel could damage Karachi’s drainage system, increase the risk of urban flooding and harm the marine environment.

The protest then drew political attention with Leader of the Opposition in the City Council Saifuddin Advocate joining Clifton residents and civil society representatives at the site last week.

Opposing any commercial activity along Nehr-i-Khayyam, he warned that narrowing or closing the natural waterway could affect the city’s rainwater drainage system and deman­ded that the Sindh government make the project’s PC-I, EIA report and other relevant documents public.

He also called for a transparent technical review of the project, saying environmental protection and public interest must be prioritised.

Though Sepa sources show little chance of any room left for their job as asked by the government for environmental review of the project, a former agency official said that the regulatory body still had provision under its mandate to intervene if it sees any environmental related impact due to any public or private project.

“In fact, the Sindh Environmental Protection Act, 2014 grants Sepa legal authority to intervene in, halt, or regulate construction and development projects that violate environmental laws or fail to obtain mandatory approvals,” said a former Sepa official.

Construction will not stop: PPP leader

PPP leader in City Council and Chief Minister’s Adviser Syed Najmi Alam, who has been vociferously defending the project from the government side, dismissed the concerns raised over the project, insisting that work would continue.

“This is not a massive or mega project, such as the construction of a dam, where an environmental impact assessment would be crucial,” he said.

He added that the government had nevertheless taken the initiative of asking Sepa to carry out its work to address any objections or concerns.

“We have asked Sepa to do its job so that any objections or concerns can be resolved. If someone is still not satisfied, what more can be done? The construction work on Nehr-i-Khayyam will not stop. It will continue,” he declared.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2026