ISLAMABAD, Sept 8: A 10-member bench of the Supreme Court resumes hearing on Monday a public petition against the pollution caused by the industrial units in Sectors I-9 and I-10 which has become a serious health hazard to their inhabitants.Headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Rana Bhagwandas Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan Justice M. Javed Buttar, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Syed Jamshed Ali and Justice Hamid Ali Mirza the bench is hearing the petition filed by Nazir Ahmed and other residents of I-9 and I-10 about environmental degradation.

They claim people living in the area have fallen victim to chronic and life threatening diseases like asthma, respiratory infections, allergies and heart ailments due to the pollution being emitted by the industrial units, especially the steel furnaces and marble units in the Federal Capital Industrial Estate.

The unauthorised expansion by some industrial units continues unchecked adding known and unknown hazards to health of the citizens as industrial pollutants in the air accrete right under the nose of official monitoring agencies and clearly in violation of laws against injurious environmental degradation.

Residents of sectors complain that the industrial estate is expanding. “We have been regularly complaining individually as well collectively to the CDA and Pak-EPA, but our complaints have proved futile,” said Mr Tippu, who lives in the I-9 sector.

Pak-EPA has recently been active with its latest monitoring equipment in an effort to control pollution in the area but its work has not gone beyond collection of data on current levels of pollution.

A senior official at the agency also confirmed to Dawn that only recently two re-rolling units have added furnaces to their machinery. The official said the agency had informed CDA about it. Other units have also expanded their businesses.

Reportedly 1,500 tons of effluents generated by the pharmaceutical industry, flour mills, oil and ghee mills, marble factories and plastic extrusion mills are being thrown into the Leh nullah every day, heavily polluting the underground water.

Around 500 factories in the I-9 and I-10 industrial estates are causing water and air pollution in the area. Of them 204 are manufacturing units including eight steel melting furnaces, 11 re-rolling mills, 25 flour mills, five oil and ghee mills, 31 marble cutting and polishing units and 23 metal working and engineering units, GI pipes, soap, chemical, plastic, marble, spices and printing, which either lack or have inadequate facilities for treatment of waste emissions.

A recent Pak-EPA exercise has confirmed the high levels of hazardous particles in the air which could cause various respiratory diseases. Various ambient air quality parameters such as CO, NOx, SOx, particulate matter, total suspended particulates (TSP), etc., were monitored to assess the status of ambient air in the area. While almost all industrial units are adding to pollution, eight steel melting units are held mainly responsible for doing the greatest damage to the environment.

In 1993, the Capital Development Authority had developed a negative list of undesirable industrial plants working in the industrial estate. It encouraged them, especially the steel furnaces, to switch to some other trade and offered not to charge the normal fee charged for that. A few units took up the offer and changed their businesses.

However the majority refused and, despite repeated meetings with them by the CDA and the Pak-EPA, continue to operate without introducing proper arrangements for disposing waste materials or installing equipment to check emissions of pollutants.

There is no dearth of laws to reign in threatening polluters. However, due to the lack of commitment on the part of Pak-EPA and CDA, the problem is getting out of hand.

Under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (Pepa), if the agency is convinced that the discharge or emission of any effluent, waste, air pollutant, noise, waste disposal, handling of hazardous substances or any other act is likely to occur or has occurred in violation of the provisions of the environment act, an Environmental Protection Order (EPO) can be issued under which a fine of up to Rs1 million can be imposed on the violator and in case of continued violation, an additional fine of Rs100,000 could be enforced for every single day the contraventions continue.

Similarly, if the environmental tribunal is satisfied with the agency’s observations it can sentence a factory owner for a jail term which may be extended to two years. The tribunal can also order closure of a factory or confiscation of equipment and material used against the provision of the environment protection act.

Likewise, the CDA has also a set of strict laws to stop anyone from challenging its writ. So far, however, these laws decorate the legal literature only and have not been enforced.