ISLAMABAD, Aug 9: The federal environment ministry will soon launch $140 million “Industrial Efficiency and Environmental Management Sector project” with the financial assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB).
State Minister for Environment Tahir Iqbal said this here on Saturday while presiding over an inter-ministerial and provincial meeting on efforts for improvement of environment throughout Pakistan.
The meeting was attended by the Punjab Environment Minister Makhdoom Ashfaq Ahmad, Federal Secretary for Environment Mr Javed Zafar and all the four provincial secretaries for environment among other high officials.
“Under the project, 13 combined effluent treatment plants will be installed in all the four provinces,” Mr Iqbal said. With the setting up of these plants, the minister explained, levels of water pollutions will significantly reduced.
The minister also directed the provincial environmental protection agencies/departments to formulate and submit policy papers envisaging environment preservation projects for the next five years.
The minister also emphasised implementation of National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) by the industries and manufacturers to cope with the WTO regime commencing from January 2005. He also informed the meeting that Vehicular Emission Testing System would be introduced on par with international standards to control air pollution in the country for which the ministry had already earmarked a significant amount.
Initially, five of such centres would be established at Nowshera, Jhelum, Quetta, Hyderabad and Islamabad as pilot projects, to be followed in major cities of the country. The provincial secretaries committed to take every possible step to ensure implementation of the Environment Protection Act 1997 and also suggested certain amendments in the law to remove certain ambiguities.
It was also decided in the meeting that all the stakeholders would be involved in the consultation process for finalizing these amendments so that the law could be effectively implemented. The meeting was also informed that a five-year programme has been developed by the federal ministry to strengthen the provincial environmental protection agencies.
Director General Pak-EPA Asif Shuja Khan in his presentation informed provincial EPAs officials that they would be provided technical and financial assistance by the federal government for their smooth functioning.
During the meeting, all the four provinces also made presentation on various environment related projects to be completed in the respective provinces, and except for few most of them were accepted by the federal ministry in principle.
The minister made a commitment that the ministry would provide every possible technical and financial support to the provincial EPAs especially for the water purification plants and hazardous land fill sites.