PESHAWAR, April 20: The Senate Standing Committee on Environment on Thursday stressed the need for strict enforcement of laws to plug environmental hazards.

Presiding over a meeting here at the Pakistan Forest Institute, committee chairman Senator Dr Mohammad Ali Brohi said that cohesive mechanism should be evolved to check growing environmental pollution and suggested strong action against violators who were putting people’s lives at risk.

“Excessive use of rubber as fuel in brick kilns exposes people to environmental degradation and as such leads to spread of fatal diseases,” he said, adding that the tendency should be discouraged by taking appropriate measures at the government level.

Industrial units and vehicular emission were also contributing to pollution and the committee urged the environment departments to adopt broader mechanism by introducing modern technologies.

The committee agreed to hold a meeting with the Ministry of Environment and provincial environment departments for finding a solution and resolving the issue of a ban on commercial harvesting of forest keeping in view the sustainable protection of forests.

Senators Syed Mohammad Hussain, Maulana Rahat Shah, Sardar Jamal Khan Leghari, Dr Abdul Khaliq Pirzada, Mir Mohabat Khan Mari and Mohammad Salah Shah also attended the meeting.

NWFP Environment Secretary Noorul Haq informed the meeting that the federal government had approved a Rs200 million project for environmental rehabilitation of Swat river and work would be initiated soon.

He said that Joint Forest Management Committees had been set up to give a sense of ownership to local communities.

The forest cover in the NWFP had been increased from 14 per cent to more than 17 per cent in the last few years, he said, adding that environmental clubs had also been set up in more than 100 public schools to create awareness among students for controlling pollution.