KARACHI, June 5: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has directed the relevant authorities to take measures to do away with the inadequacies of environmental laws on a priority basis and to make these laws more specific to all sectors that contribute to environmental degradation. He was speaking as chief guest at a seminar organised by the environment and alternative energy department of the Sindh government in connection with the World Environment Day (WED) on Thursday at a local hotel.

The World Environment Day is globally observed on June 5 every year. This year the WED calls the citizens of the world particularly those living in big cities, the policymakers and the powers that be to shift their focus to greenhouse gas emissions and control the situation before it is too late.

Highlighting the importance of a clean environment, the chief minister stressed the need for taking immediate and effective measures to address the issue. “The relationship between the environment and the existence of life is so vital that health and education, though they are very important subjects on their own, take a back seat. The environment has a direct bearing on the health of the people, and so if we want to have a healthy community contributing positively in all sectors, it is of prime importance that we all play a role in reducing environmental degradation.”

Speaking about the role that government agencies and departments would have to play in order to check various types of pollution, ecological destruction keeping in view scarcity of resources, Mr Shah said that the problem could only be handled effectively by taking on board the sectors that were generally considered major contributors to the economy and the development of the country, but at the same time were found involved in some activities, intentionally or unintentionally, causing damage to the environment.

The chief minister said that he was aware that the main legislation pertaining to the environment in the country was the Pakistan Environment Protection Act, 1997 and the rules and regulations made thereunder.

“I am also aware of the inadequacies of this law,” he said, calling for a review of the existing environmental laws.

He hoped that the environment department in coordination with other relevant departments would come up with proposals in this regard.

Mr Shah noted that the Sindh Environment Tribunal, a federal government entity, had become non-functional reportedly due to the non-appointment of a new chairman after the imposition of emergency rule in the country on November 3, 2007.

“The matter will be taken up immediately so that this important forum is available for effective action under the relevant laws,” he added.

Shedding light on remedial and mitigation measures, the chief minister said that the federal and the provincial governments, coordinating with the managements of industrial areas and the industrialists, must ensure that effective treatment plants and other measures were taken to reduce degradation of the country’s natural resources such as rivers, canals, air, land and sea.

Referring to the dilapidated condition of vehicles in the public transport sector, he said that those vehicles were the major sources of air pollution, particularly in city areas, but could not be scrapped at once since there were no other means for public transport and ultimately the people would have to suffer further.

He stressed the need for the promotion of a mass transit system in Karachi and Hyderabad and other cities and asked for expediting the induction of CNG buses and rickshaws.

The chief minister held the discharge of raw sewage into the Indus and its canals and in the sea as a major area of concern and directed the establishment of a system under which domestic sewage should be treated at the district and taluka headquarters levels before its release.

He advised the local government department to act in coordination with the environment department to conceive a scheme through which all districts in the interior of Sindh were assisted in phases.

Mr Shah also criticised the excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides in the agriculture sector and the consequent adverse impact on the quality of groundwater. The local government, agriculture and environment departments should adopt a coordinated and integrated approach to minimise the threats and hazards due to contamination, he added.

The chief minister also asked the chief secretary of the Sindh government to take initiatives to resolve the problems of the Sindh environment department and Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) regarding human resources and other logistics issues, enabling them to act as pushing and proactive forces, not only for the enforcement of environmental laws but also to act as facilitators for all the sectors that could help improve the deteriorated environment.

The provincial minister for environment and alternative energy, Askari Taqvi, said that there was a need to improve on all fronts as environmental degradation had now become a matter of grave concern, mostly owing to very little follow-ups of laws and recommendations made for betterment from time to time.

He said that a lack of awareness about environmental issues, poor implementation of mitigation measures and administrative slackness had contributed a lot towards unsustainable development in the province, but now it was time to assess the situation.

The managing director of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), Suleman Chandio, said that untreated sewage in a good quantity was being released into the sea, rivers and canals across the province in a complete disregard to the country’s environment laws, which among other things also envisaged a safe and secured water bodies, rivers and sea of the country.

Gulzar Feroze of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industries said that there was no doubt that today industries were considered the main polluters, but at the same time there was a need for maintaining a balance between the production programmes of the industries and the implementation of the environmental laws and national environment quality standards rules.

He said that the authorities both in the industrial and environment sectors should also focus on the anti-environment practices and take measures motivating the industrialists to take up the environmental laws seriously.

Mir Hussain Ali, secretary of the environment department and Ali Ahmad Lund, director-general of Sindh Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) in their speeches pointed out the absence of a committed role sought in the case of stakeholders and the government agencies concerned.

Malik Zaheerul Islam, director-general of the Karachi Mass Transit Cell, said that efforts were on to achieve some meaningful breakthrough in the public vehicular transport system, but there was also a need for the development of an alternative, sustainable and well-integrated transport strategy as well for a city like Karachi where 40 persons compete every day for one bus seat, against 12 in Mumbai and eight in Bangkok.

He also stressed the need for checking the quality of diesel used in the city public and service transports, increase in the CNG pressures at the fuel stations, and ensuring of a well-protected and adequate system of vehicle inspection and testing.

Nikhat Sattar of the IUCN and Ghulam Akbar of the WFF stressed the need for attending to the problems pertaining to the coastal belt, quality of water and factors causing climate changes and relevant adaptations.