KARACHI, Feb 21: Participants of a public hearing on Saturday said that the government should step in and closely monitor sugar processing at mills and that it should enforce a foolproof environmental management system, as the unsafe practices of sugar mills were leading to a great deal of environmental damage.

The public hearing was organised by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) to review an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report submitted by the proponents of a sugar mill to be established in Ghotki.

The proposed mill will have an initial cane crushing capacity of 8,000 tonnes per day.

The proponents are also in the process of setting up a micro finance network that will enable them to procure the sugarcane crop from more than 90,000 acres.

The speakers, including environmental and social scientists and government officials, said that sugar mills in general were currently being blamed for releasing liquid and gaseous effluents and solid waste, which had an adverse impact on the ecosystem and the environment due to their high biological oxygen demand (BOD) loads and toxic constituents. They said that in such an environment, the upcoming sugar mill and all existing mills should be required to have the state-of-the-art systems, plants and equipment to minimise pollution hazards.

It was observed that the effluents from sugar mills adversely affected ground water, which is the only source of water available for both drinking and agricultural purposes in areas around sugar mills. There are over 30 sugar mills, mostly in the rural areas, established by political figures or industry owners, but most of them have grown old and need to be upgraded, both from a mechanical and environmental point of view.

Instead of depending on the lagoons and streams that were currently used for release of sugar plant effluents, mill owners should be compelled to have treatment plants at all levels to ensure disposal of solid, liquid and gaseous waste in the proper manner, it was argued at the hearing.

One of the experts said the wide use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers in sugarcane farms was said to be one of the reasons behind problems like high soil pH levels, alkalinity and decrease in yield of the soil in the areas surrounding the farms.

In the case of the project under review, the speakers largely felt that it would entail the same environmental hazards that were generally associated with sugar plants, and would also encourage the indiscriminate use of limited resources such as water.

Residents want jobs, social

sector activities

The social leaders and some area residents from the proposed project area also pressed the proponents to undertake social sector activities, including establishment of basic health units and schools, interaction with farmers, establishment of vocational centres where unskilled manpower could be trained to work at the mill and the development of roads for the population in the mill’s surrounding areas.

Demanding jobs for the local people in the proposed sugar mill, a couple of speakers also criticised Sepa for its alleged failure to implement environmental laws in the case of a sugar mill which was made operational about a year ago.

They said that the mills in question did not give jobs to local people, and further accused them of not meeting the standards Sepa had set for them in the No Objection Certificate it granted the mill owners.The Sepa director-general, Shakeel A. Hashmi, and director Naeem A. Mughal said that the government would ensure that the living standards of people in the areas around sugar mills were improved, and would institute legal action against the mills which were violating the environmental laws of the country.

Environment protection activities were for sustainable development and were not meant to reduce the chances of development or cause unemployment and environmental health problems at any stage, Mr Hashmi added, saying that the objections, apprehensions and suggestions made during the EIA public hearing on Saturday would be placed before Sepa’s committee of experts, while the proponent would be asked to remove the deficiencies and follow an approved environmental mitigation plan during the construction and operational phases of the project.

In reply to another question, Mr Mughal clarified that under the rules, proponents of projects were required to submit an EIA or IEE report to Sepa before executing any construction or operational work on the project site, and it was in the interest of owners of development projects to follow the rules.