PESHAWAR, Nov 4: Loopholes in regulations of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency concerning initial environmental examination has caused poultry farms to mushroom in several parts of the NWFP.
Officials and independent sources said that poultry farming has become a full-fledged sector and thousands of people are, directly or indirectly, associated with it. The sector's growth, officials said, had created economic activities at the grass-root level and self-employment opportunities for many but it had created problems, too.
"The sector is growing without planning on the part of the provincial government," said a businessman associated with the poultry sector.
Business circles said that there was hardly any check on the establishment of poultry farms and hatcheries and it had created multiple problems for people, besides undermining the performance of the civic bodies.
They said that there were no specific rules for the establishment of poultry farms, except for certain rules of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997, that, too, did not cover majority of the farms established in the province.
According to Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency Review of Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) and Environmental Impact Assessment (IEA) Regulations, 2000, poultry farms with an investment of more than Rs10 million are required to submit IEE to the EPA.
The move was meant to mitigate the effects of poultry farms on the local area environment.
However, official said that majority of the farms set up in the Frontier province had been established without submitting IEE to the provincial EPA because these were not covered by the federal agency's regulations promulgated in June 2000.
An environmental expert said that thousands of poultry farms set up in the province had invested less than Rs10 million and, therefore, did not fall under the purview of the federal laws and were not bound to submit IEE.
The official said that the provincial EPA could hardly do any thing to make these poultry farms go by the IEE rules.
This situation, officials said, had created a sense of irresponsibility among owners of poultry farms who appeared to be least bothered about maintaining environmental standards in the area of their operations.