KARACHI, Aug 30: Sindh Minister for Environment and Forests Hasan Ali Chaniho has said the disposal of industrial waste and smoke emission will be reduced after the enforcement of Pollution Charge and implementation of Self-Monitoring System in the industries and as a result the environment will become safe and clean.

He was presiding over a meeting held to discuss ways to control environmental pollution, National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) and enforcement of the Pollution Charge.

Provincial Secretary for Environment and Forest Shamsul Huq Memon briefed the meeting.

The minister said the implementation of NEQS was the need of the hour and these standards had been enforced in all the four provinces with uniformity.

He said self-monitoring system and reporting by Industries system would help control the industrial and marine pollution.

Mr Chaniho said the self-monitoring and reporting system laws had been prepared in consultation with the industrialists and as such their implementation was also their moral obligation.

As per these laws, a complete record of emissions and waste from industries, which does not exceed the standards of NEQS, will have to provide to EPA, which would keep checking the same.

The secretary for forest and environment, Shamsul Huq Memon, told the minister that recently a NEQS implementation committee had been formed under Dr Pervez Hasan which would prepare a line of action for implementation of NEQS at provincial level.

He said the pollution charge is a kind of fine which would be imposed if the industrial pollution exceeds the standards provided in NEQS.

He said the Central Agency for Environment Protection had prepared a pilot scale programme for the implementation of self-monitoring system. A computerized database in this regard had been developed as a self-monitoring and reporting tool. — APP