Several plots, streets and roads of the vast industrial area are found littered with hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste.

Residents of nearby localities, workers and visitors to the industrial area fear that the situation, if not checked properly, may have catastrophic effects on public health. The entire area reeked of chemical waste, said a couple of people whom Dawn spoke to in Sector-7/A of Korangi.

One can see the frequent and unchecked burning of tannery solid effluents, skin and chemically-treated leather waste along the roads and near sensitive installations, said a regular visitor to the area. “The longstanding issue of environmental hazards perhaps needs a Supreme Court verdict to get resolved on a pattern of the case of polluting factories in SITE.”

A survey of Sector-6 comprising Mehran town and Sharifabad and Sector 7-A showed that even the combined effluent treatment plant meant for the effluents of tanneries was not following the safe operating practices.

Last year, four workers died at this treatment plant after inhaling poisonous gas, but nobody heard if any step was taken by the relevant authorities to fix the leakage problem, said a vendor in the area. “You can see the hazardous waste and sludge generated by the plant in the nearby depression areas and open plots. The rubbish strewn all over this place is meant for burning,” he pointed out.

At the tanneries, a chrome (chromium) tanning method is widely used to chemically alter animal skins into supple and strong leather. The technique involves large quantities of water and chemicals and so is the quantity of waste -liquid effluents, solid waste and air emissions- that is released by the tanneries. Solid waste include dusted curing salts, raw trimmings, wet trimmings, dry trimmings, wet shavings, dry shavings, buffing, and packaging material.

Tanneries are generally blamed for adversely affecting the environment and health of their workers and surrounding communities. The common diseases due to unsafe handling of the solid waste are named as respiratory disorders and skin infections.

While some motorcyclists passing through the thick smoke of burning waste were seen with their nose covered with masks and handkerchiefs, scavengers were found sifting through the industrial and hazardous wastes without taking any preventive measure.

Town administration

Speaking to Dawn, Korangi Town Administrator Mohammad Sami Khan said “We have to handle thousands of tonnes of industrial solid waste, including hazardous and toxic, accumulated during the months mainly due to unsafe practices of many of the 4,000 industrial units in the town.”

The administrator said he had met the representatives of Korangi Association of Trade and Industries and the Pakistan Tanners' Association and had told them that the town administration was ready to provide logistic support to the industries if they contributed towards cost of fuel used for lifting of waste and its transfer to the landfill sites of the city government.

He said that the town alone could not manage the waste problem and improve the overall environmental conditions in the vicinity and that was why he wanted the industrialists to have their own permanent system of the waste segregation at the source, and lifting and transportation to the designated dumping sites in their vicinity. For the purpose, they could hire the services of contractors, who might prove economical and effective as far as the lifting of the waste from their doorsteps was concerned.

He said that he believed that polluters would have to pay to resolve the issue on an immediate basis so that the existing heaps of waste were removed from the streets and roads of the industrial area.

In reply to a question, he said that the improper disposal of tannery solid waste was surely a matter of concern and in addition to industrialists, he would also take up the matter of dumping of the CETP' sludge solid waste in the open with plant managers.

He said that the town administration could not take any severe action against the industries, as it was the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency's duty to ensure that the industries were not contravening the environmental laws.

Sepa action

Director-General of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency Naeem A. Mughal said that Sepa's field officers off and on visited the tanneries and issued several environmental protection orders to the polluters.

“Legal action will surely be taken against those who fail to comply with Sepa directives,” he said.

When asked, he said that it was true that no environmental impact assessment of the CETP had been conducted, but the body maintaining the plant claimed that it was running it in an environmental friendly manner.

Sepa would, however, examine the matter pertaining to improper disposal of solid waste (sludge cakes) by the plant in places other than designated sites. The tanners' body might also be told to file monitoring reports and environmental compliance reports to Sepa in future, he said.

The DG said that the issue of solid waste and dumping grounds, waste water discharge and emission of volatile compounds causing air pollution could be addressed by the industrialists of Korangi town only when they had a vigilance committee and an integrate system to refrain polluting units from causing any adverse impact on the environment.

Officials of the tanners' association were not available for comment.