KARACHI, Jan 6: Participants of a public hearing on Saturday urged the government to get the environmental status of chemical zone at the Bin Qasim Industrial Zone assessed. They expressed their satisfaction that environmental agencies had, though late, started conducting the environmental impact assessment prior to the establishment of big industries or development projects. “However, there is still a lot to be done towards controlling pollution and checking the deteriorating environmental degradation, particularly in the urban areas of the country.

The public hearing of environmental impact assessment was held at a hotel for a project aimed at producing polyvinyl chloride and caustic soda in the limits of Bin Qasim Industrial Area. The proponents of the project informed the gathering that they not only wanted to expand their existing PVC capacity but also needed to set up a 59MW power plant on the same premises.

Bin Qasim, built in 1970s, is now the country’s second largest port surrounded by a vast industrial zone measuring 11,000 acres.

One of the participants observed it was good that the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) had been able to hold public hearing on projects and issuing NOC to the proponents on a case-to-case basis, but without knowing the collective impact of discharge and emission from industrial units, it would be difficult to ensure a check on environmental degradation.

Impact assessment reports, along with commitments for clean environment and hazard mitigation measures, are okayed by SEPA without having a baseline data pertaining to environment standards, added the speaker, apprehending that nobody knew what will happen to gross streams containing hazardous chemicals discharged from the existing or projected chemical industries in the Bin Qasim zone.

Responding to the concerns raised by different experts and public representatives, Director General of SEPA Abdul Malik Ghauri said that it was true that there was no baseline data regarding gaseous emissions or other effluent discharge, but his agency would soon be convening a meeting of representatives of chemical industries at the Bin Qasim zone, experts and scientists, as well as those of the Port Qasim Authority, to understand the threats, if any, posed to human lives.

He said that SEPA would also like to know from the PQA about the number of plots allotted for chemical industry units and ensure existence of a coordination body to check any hazardous discharge.

Earlier, in their presentations, the proponents and owner of the PVC expansion and chlor alkali projects maintained that the project would be the country’s first totally integrated grass-root PVC and caustic soda manufacturing facility under the management of Engro Asahi Polymer and Chemical Limited to be established with an estimated cost of $250 million. It will incorporate a state-of-the-art technology to ensure safe, efficient and environment-friendly operations.

According to one of the project managers, it is expected that the construction work for the PVC plant having a capacity of producing 50,000 tonnes per annum, Chlor Alkali Plant based on the ion exchange membrane technology from Japan for a maximum production of 100,000 tonnes of caustic soda and 90,000 tonnes of Chlorine per annum, relocation