MULTAN, Feb 19: The district government has formed a vigilance committee to monitor emission of effluent from the gigantic Pak-Arab Fertilizers' factory situated within the city limits.

A source in the Environment Protection Department said DCO Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry had been designated as the chairman of the committee while District Officer (environment) Mian Khalid Mahmood would be its secretary. The executive engineer (irrigation), civil defence officer and a representative of NGO sector would be the members of the committee.

The source said the EPD had recommended to send matter of the fertilizer factory to the environment tribunal for causing damage to environment of the area by not using its treatment plant to lessen toxicity of its effluent before discharging these in the air and the nearby irrigation channel, Naubahar canal.

However, the source said, the district government was of the view that the fertilizer unit should be given a chance to improve its record viz-a-viz environment degradation in the district, especially the areas situated on the Khanewal Road.

When talked, DO (environment) Mian Khalid said the committee would ensure that the management of the fertilizer unit would do the compulsory plantation in the vicinity to make the environment clean, besides it would randomly check that whether the ammonia and carbon dioxide treatment plant of the factory was operative.

He said the management of the fertilizer unit would also be asked to regularly submit a monthly report to the EPD under the Self Monitoring Rules, 2001, about the toxicity level of its emissions in the free air and the irrigation channels.

A close monitoring of the fertilizer unit was required to avert any catastrophe like the one that happened in Bhopal (India) where hundreds of people perished when lethal gases leaked from a Union Carbide fertilizer unit.

Moreover, the DO said, the EPD had sent cases of 15 private hospitals and 24 sheep and beef casing concerns to the special judicial magistrate (environment) for trial under section 142 of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance, 2001, for not disposing of their solid waste properly.

He said the court had summoned them on Feb 27 to present their defence. He said the cases against the hospitals were sent to the court because their respective managements did not comply with the EPD notice to install incinerators and dispose of the used syringes by making them unable to be repacked/reused.

He said the EPD had credible reports that the used syringes were being repacked for reuse. "The phenomenon is causing ever-increasing cases of hepatitis B and C," he added.

The environment officer said the traders, who dealt in the business of sheep and beef casings, had been occupying the water works road near Ghantaghar Chowk situated at the heart of the city.