KARACHI: The Port Qasim Authority (PQA) has allowed major coal handling operations in its jurisdiction with complete disregard for public health and environmental safety, and without waiting for a decision by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) on the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report.
These points have been raised in a letter Sepa has sent recently to the chairman of the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) and the project developer, Huaneng Fuyun Port and Shipping (Pvt) Ltd.
Sources say that it is the third time Sepa has raised concerns over this project whose EIA it did not approve in 2016 and the project developer was asked to remove ‘deficiencies’ in the report.
“We are further disappointed by the fact that instead of receiving a response from you, Huaneng Fuyun Port and Shipping (Pvt) Ltd and PQA have rushed through the project in utter disregard for the provisions of Sindh Environmental Protection Act 2014,”says a Sepa letter dated April 24.
The operation going on for over a year without Sepa’s approval involved unloading of coal from motherships, its transfer to small vessels, its dumping in a yard and then transportation to Sahiwal through a rail link for a 1320MG power plant, a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
Contaminating products
Speaking to Dawn, visitors to the area said that transportation, lifting and dumping of coal in the absence of any safety measures had badly affected the area, particularly the nearby offices.
“The whole area remains covered in a thick blanket of coal dust all day, making breathing extremely difficult. The road being used to transport coal and the area’s plantation have been ruined by coal dust and spillage,” a person hired for some work in the area told Dawn on condition of anonymity.
This continuing environmental disaster also poses risk to the safe operation of many industrial units running in the area including food processing, pharmaceutical and chemical units, water purification units, edible and crude oil facilities, refineries and automobile manufacturing units.
Their representatives, however, refused to talk on record as they feared a backlash from the PQA on whose land they had their assets on.
Second, they said, law-enforcement agencies monitoring the area could trouble them later as the Sahiwal project was part of the CPEC.
No action against the project developer or PQA has been taken by Sepa so far, not even an inspection of the affected area.
According to media reports, the first consignment of 43,999 tonnes of coal imported from South Africa for the trial operations of Sahiwal Coal Power Plant was unloaded at Port Qasim in January last year.
These reports also show that the Sahiwal coal fired project was made operational much ahead of its scheduled time which explains the haste shown in making the Port Qasim project functional as it aimed at providing fuel to the $1.8bn Sahiwal project.
To question how unsafe coal handling could affect public health and environment, Saquib Ejaz Hussain explained that degraded airshed might subject Karachiites to unacceptably high pollution levels and health risks that may arise from contamination of products being processed in the affected area.
“It may also negatively affect production costs and discourage new or expanding businesses. The approach to wait until a problem develops can result in the need for costly retrofit solutions.”