HYDERABAD, Aug 10: An Environmental Protection Order issued to two industrial units of Kotri Site for polluting the Kalri Baghar Feeder has not been implemented by the Dadu police, it was learnt here on Tuesday.

The director-general of the Environmental Protection Agency, Mohammad Younus Dagha, had issued the order under section 16 of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (PEPA), 1997, against the managing director/chief executive, Star Paper Boards, and the managing director/chief executive, Shepherd Industries, requiring them to stop production in their factories in the interest of public health and to save environment from further degradation.

The factories had been held responsible for discharging untreated effluent into the KB Feeder, a source of fresh water emanating from the River Indus. The EPA had told the factories that the discharge was deteriorating water quality that was likely to cause adverse effects on health of people and environment.

The factories had been issued show-cause notices in July to submit reply in writing in 15 days. The factories had also been given an opportunity of hearing but their representatives had not appeared on the fixed date.

A copy of the EPO had been sent to the DPO of Dadu for taking necessary action that might lead to closure of the factories but nothing has been done so far. The EPA has been raising the issue of a treatment plant in the Kotri site area on the ground that a huge quantity of untreated effluent is being discharged into the KB Feeder, which supplies drinking water to Jamshoro, Kotri and part of Karachi.

The Kotri Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) had conducted a study on the feeder to ascertain the level of its pollution. The KATI in its findings had said domestic waste of colonies of Sindh University, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences and Mehran University of Engineering and Technology was also being discharged into the feeder.