KARACHI, Sept 23: The adviser to Sindh chief minister on Environment and Alternate Energy, Noman Saigol, on Thursday said a windmill project for Thatta is being finalized at Islamabad without consulting the Sindh government.

Speaking at a press conference at the Sindh secretariat, the adviser, who had recently returned from Islamabad after attending the first meeting of the National Advisory Board on Environment, said he had come to know that a group of people, who had nothing to do with the Sindh government or any of its agencies, had signed an MoU with a firm regarding windmills in Thatta district, which was not a healthy sign.

He said that at no stage had any agency or department of the Sindh government been taken into confidence, while without undertaking any physical on-the-spot feasibility and related exercise, certain quarters in the name of an alternate energy body were acting in a questionable manner.

However, they should know that the Sindh government would not allow any one to act on its behalf or finalize any deal with regard to the windmills in question. Coming to the Islamabad meeting on environment held on October 20, he said that in principle, the advisory body had agreed to propose to the federal government for imposing a ban on the use of plastic bags throughout the country, as it was not environmental friendly.

Sindh had also given its consent and assurance for supporting the ban on plastic bags, he added. He said that paper bags had been suggested as an alternative to plastic bags, while the government was also considering measures to overcome unemployment and economic problems of people involved in the plastic bag business.

He informed that a comprehensive national environment policy was being prepared, focussing on 14 core issues, also including air and water pollution. A team of federal and provincial ministers for environment and alternate energy and other officials of government agencies on environment would start visiting provinces soon to assess the viability and physical inspections of places where environment projects could be set up in future.

He said that the Islamabad meeting had also agreed that environmental projects should be prepared and effected by taking into confidence local people of villages and towns.

Measures had also been identified for further effectivity of the environmental protection agencies at provincial level and giving them more powers to implement environmental rules.

Referring to inputs given by the province to the federal government with regard to environmental policy, Mr Saigol said that Sindh wanted training of its environmental and alternate energy department officials, launching of alternative energy schemes by the province, sending its officers abroad as and when training programmes were held, province should have close liasion with federal agencies and the planning and development department, establishments of EPAs at its 16 districts, more federal government finances to Sindh in the environment sector, and due share to Sindh in the international financing on environment projects.

Talking about Sindh environment department's activities, the adviser mentioned that efforts were being made to control pollution in the province in both urban and rural areas. We are also coordinating with various government departments, industries and transporters and persuading them to practice environmental sanitation and to convince them to follow rules.

He said that during the drive against smoke-emitting and noisy vehicles, action would be taken first against government vehicles. We have also written to various government departments and agencies for their support in launching consultative and action drives against air and water polluters from October 1, he added, saying that the government's fitness centres would also be inspected soon in order to ensure their performance.

He observed that civic agencies and hospitals were not up to mark with regard to safe disposal of solid waste and medical waste. Measures would be taken to check pollution taking place due to negligence of oil and gas companies, foreign ships and trawlers, companies, housing projects, and wrong practices in the fishing and agriculture sectors.

He once again demanded the Sindh government to make an allocation equal to 30 per cent of the health department's budget for the environment department so that the manpower and machinery crises could be addressed. He said that the environment department was working for launching about 30 new schemes during the next financial year.

He said medical professionals would be requested to assist the environment and alternate energy department in the awareness process regarding diseases produced by environmental degradation.

He informed that under a clean drinking water project as approved by the ECNEC, all district governments in Sindh had been asked to identify a place for installation of clean drinking water plants.