KARACHI, July 10: The Sindh Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has proposed three projects of two to three years’ duration each under the national environmental action plan (NEAP) support programme.

Sources in SEPA said financial support for the projects, costing Rs78 million, would be extended by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), while NGOs and CBOs would also be involved in the projects aimed to combat environmental problems in the province.

It was learnt that under an agreement with the government of Pakistan, the UNDP would provide a sum of US $42 million as a grant for undertaking poverty alleviation-related environmental projects in the country. At present, provinces are preparing project concept papers for submission to the federal government.

Under the NEAP, six major categories have been defined for the projects. The SEPA’s three projects pertained to vehicular emission, formation of a field survey section and environmental awareness and education.

According to concept paper on vehicular emission control programme, the SEPA wants to address the problem of air pollution on a priority basis, particularly in the urban settlements. In this regard, vehicular emissions are considered to contributing the major share and influencing maximum range of pollution.

The provincial EPA has suggested initiation of a sustainable campaign for monitoring vehicles that could be classified as polluting, both in terms of emission and noise levels, in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur. Several green squads will be formed to monitor vehicular traffic simultaneously at various selected locations for identifying and then penalizing the vehicles emitting smoke and producing noise in excess of the permissible limits.

Each green squad will include a nominee of the SEPA, a field analyst and persons from traffic police or other law-enforcement agencies, while necessary permissions or documents would be obtained from environmental magistrates for penalization purposes.

Besides, four vehicular emission testing stations will be established — two in Karachi, one each in Hyderabad and Sukkur — which will give clearance to vehicles penalized by the green squads after necessary maintenance works.

The emission control campaign in the three cities has been planned for a period of two years, but a system will be developed to keep the activity running smoothly with the same infrastructure and objectives with funds generated during the implementation of the campaign in the shape of fees and chalans, said SEPA sources.

The purposes of the projects included improvement of air quality, quality of vehicles and aesthetics in the cities, improvement of health of commuters, traffic policemen and people residing in and around the commercial areas and busy roads, and control of adulteration in fuel and oil.

Another project planned under the UNDP funding will ensure enforcement of national environmental quality standards (NEQS) and investigation of environmental issues.

Under the project, random surveys will be carried out to investigate into matters pertaining to environmental pollution and contaminations both in cities and rural areas. The project also aims to identify the practices prevailing in society which are injurious to health.

The indicators to be considered for assessing the output of the activities and progress of the project will be as follows: Status of ambient air quality and waste water characteristics within the industrial areas; noise levels at industrial and commercial areas; record of public complaints on environmental issues successfully addressed by the SEPA; and health of the people.

In all, five monitoring teams, comprising field analysts, samplers and drivers, have been proposed under the project to survey and visit the industrial units located in Karachi, Nooriabad, Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Kotri, Sukkur and Larkana.

Procurement of vehicles for all the five monitoring teams has also been suggested under the project which will be carried out within a period of three years.

Another project pertained to environmental awareness and education programme to be implemented in rural and urban areas with the optimum use of available tools of communication.

The objective of the scheme is not only to make people aware of environment but to raise different issues threatening the environment, to define the problem, its severity, consequences and most important of all to provide them with some guidance regarding solution to the problems.

Under the project, environmental clubs will be formed in 1,000 schools throughout the province, environmental information centre will be established in Karachi, Larkana, Sukkur and Hyderabad, besides publishing magazines on environment in Urdu and Sindhi.

The director-general of SEPA, Shafiq Khuso, told Dawn that the three projects would create job opportunities for a good number of people. Since SEPA has limited staff and resources, it would be hiring people of different qualifications.

He said the projects were being routed through the planning and development department of the Sindh government for onward submission to the federal government and it was likely that the SEPA would be provided substantial amount not only for these projects but for others projects which are to be finalized soon.