PESHAWAR, March 1: Projects designed to protect environment by controlling air and noise pollution and ensuring proper disposal of solid and industrial waste appear to be low on the NWFP government's priority list.
This is borne out by the size of funds allocated for such schemes under the current financial year's annual development programme. Information gathered from official circles revealed that the provincial government had earmarked a total of Rs15.6 million for as many as nine development projects under its current financial year's ADP.
The total cost of these projects has been estimated at about Rs76.5 million with a major chunk of Rs25 million going to be utilized to set up waste water treatment facility for the effluents discharged by the Hayatabad Industrial Estate, Peshawar.
In this way, the funds earmarked under the current financial year's ADP for these nine projects makes about 20 per cent of their total estimated cost - of Rs76.5 million.
"The negligible allocation made under the ADP clearly reflects the lack of interest on the part of the provincial government towards this important sector (environment)," conceded a development planner of the provincial government.
Against the total annual allocation of Rs15.6 million, the authorities have, so far, released about Rs10.5 million for the execution of some seven projects. The rest of the two, though approved for execution by the competent forums, have not yet been released funds due to certain undecided issues.
Official sources attributed the lack of interest on the part of the provincial government towards the environment sector to the donor-driven planning being pursued at the provincial level - at least in the case of NWFP.
"International donor agencies are more interested in investing in the social sector to accomplish their self-determined goal of poverty alleviation, hence, they have diverted flow of their funds to improve education, health, road, water and sanitation sectors," said a Peshawar-based development planner of an international organization.
"Environment," said an officer of the provincial government, "is no more on top of the agenda of international donors as a result of which the provincial government, too, appears to be least interested to do the needful to control air, water and noise pollution".
The seven projects which have already been released funds are:
1) Setting up of provincial sustainable development fund,
(2) human resource development and capacity building for environment impact assessment (EIA) preparation of development projects in NWFP,
(3) revised environmental profile of the NWFP including study on environmental effects and damages caused by Afghan refugees,
(4) air pollution control through phasing out and conversion of 2-stroke petrol auto rickshaws into CNG,
(5) introduction to cleaner production practices in marble and stone crushing units in NWFP,
(6) urban forestry project in NWFP and
(7) raising environmental awareness in society through electronic and print media.
The two projects which have not yet been released funds are: (1) setting up of waste water treatment facility for the effluents of Hayatabad industrial estate, Peshawar, and (2) solid waste collection and disposal through composting in 10 selected areas of NWFP.
According to official sources, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), NWFP, has been assigned the task of executing all the nine projects, which is not in keeping with its original role of a regulatory entity.
Some of the official sources doubted EPA's capacity to successfully discharge its new responsibility of a project executing agency. "Last year, too, the EPA could not utilize the funds it had been provided with for executing development projects," said a development planner.
Knowledgeable sources said that the EPA recorded zero expenditure during the last financial year and the money released to it for executing development projects got lapsed at the end of the 2002-03 fiscal year.
"The authorities concerned took up the matter of non-utilization of funds with the EPA in an attempt to push it to utilize the funds, but to no avail," said a senior officer of the provincial government. However, EPA officials, when contacted, said the funds remained unutilized because of fulfilling procedural requirements and due to delayed provision of funds to the Agency by the provincial government.