KARACHI, June 28: The ad hoc handling of imported coal, and the fact that it is dumped very near the beach-front, is not only taking its toll on the environment but the dumping ground’s proximity to oil installations constitutes a potential threat to Keamari’s oil installation area, Dawn has learnt.
The coal, which the private sector has been importing for several years, presents a hazard since it is prone to spontaneous combustion that can lead to serious fires, observed a port user. Furthermore, each handling of the consignment discharges large quantities of coal dust into the air, which is then blown far and wide on the wind. Residential areas located on the beach-front have been badly affected by the coal-dust laden air, as have workers at the port and various terminals’ offices in Keamari.
“Upon returning home from my Keamari office, I cough up a black substance – coal, of course – almost every day,” an employee of a private company informed Dawn.
Located within walking distance of the coal dumping yard in the oil installation area of Keamari, his office has taken on the look of a coal mine. The once white paint is now grey, if not black, while even indoor staircases and window-blinds in air-conditioned rooms are grey with the coal dust.
Nearly all the offices located in the area are in a similar situation, and a worker pointed out that anyone who goes to the mosque in the oil installation area returns with his clothing blackened, particularly on the arms and legs.
Residences, roads, oil installations affected
The large quantity of coal dust is due, to some extent, to the several stages of dumping the consignment goes through.
According to a port user, the coal is unloaded by cranes and dumped on to the berth/plinth in the first handling. Then, dumpers are loaded (second handling) and taken to the dumping yard within the port, where the coal is piled up again (third handling). From there, the consignee loads the coal up into dumpers (fourth handling) and transports it to the final destination.
As a result of this frequent loading and unloading, the discharging berths and the port area – particularly along the route to the dumping yard – are badly hit by the spreading coal dust. Meanwhile, the coal-laden sea breeze brings misery to beach-front residential areas.
Upon visiting the bounded area of the port, Dawn found some workers cleaning up the coal dust left behind by the moving dumpers. In the oil installation areas, however, the situation was far worse since no such clean-up exercises take place. Yet the fact remains that even if a sizable work force were employed to clean up the coal dust, the volume of the dust and the frequency of the dumpers’ movement is such that their efforts would be rendered negligible.
“The constant movement of the dumpers has also ruined the roads within Keamari’s oil installation area,” complained an office-bearer of the Terminal Association of Pakistan.
An official of the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) admitted that coal dumping was an issue but maintained that the effects have, to a large extent, been mitigated.
“In an effort to control the coal dust, we have dug bores and installed pumps that spray water on the coal,” said Mr Usmani, the manager of KPT’s Marine Pollution Department, adding that “in this era of fuel shortages, we as a country have no alternative but to depend on this coal.” He conceded that some oil companies and port users are affected by the coal dumping area in their midst, but said that the real issue was the coal’s transportation from the port to Wazir Mansion, a process that left the roads littered with coal.
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