KARACHI, March 3 The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) has asked the proponents of a Karachi Port Trust workers' housing scheme on a 250 acre plot in the Sandspit area along Hawkesbay Road to have their project assessed from an environmental point of view.

Sources in the provincial environmental watchdog said that the United Workers Front KPT Cooperative Housing Society, which is in the process of executing works on its housing projects meant for about 5,000 in-service employees of the Karachi Port Trust, has been asked to furnish a detailed report related to the project covering the environmental and marine ecology aspects to Sepa at the earliest. Sepa said the project must be duly assessed and other stakeholders apprised of the environmental impact of constructing the housing scheme.

The cooperative society is required not to initiate any work on the ground before acquiring a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Sepa.

As per the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997, no proponent of a project shall commence construction or operation of any project unless an environmental impact assessment (EIA) or Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) report is submitted to the environmental protection agency concerned.

In view of the location of the project in an environmentally sensitive area along the beach, officials at Sepa felt that there was a need to scrutinise the project and to put into place a set of mitigation measures before any implementation, a source said.

Under the rules, violation of the country's environmental laws related to the impact assessment is a cognizable offence and leads to the imposition of penalties and stoppage of development, construction and operation at the site. Further, the party or parties involved may then be prosecuted before the environmental protection tribunal.

Talking to Dawn, the secretary of the UWF KPT housing society, Kamran Usmani, said that the KPT management had handed over a piece of land measuring 250 acres situated on Hawkesbay Road to the society for 99 years for employee housing purposes last year. We have already submitted a layout plan of the housing project to the Lyari Development Authority for approval, he said. The project includes preparation of about 5,000 plots of 120 sq. yds, commercial plots and a number of amenity plots for mosques, educational institutions and hospitals, he added.

Responding to a question, he said that Sepa had also suggested that the society should seek environmental clearance and the formalities in this regard would be met as soon as the layout plan was approved by the LDA.

When contacted for comments, a senior official of the Sindh Wildlife department, Fehmida Firdous, told Dawn that the Hawkesbay and Sandspit beaches, which host the nesting of the green turtle and the olive ridley turtle, are legally protected under the Sindh Wildlife Protection Act 1993.

She said the threats to the turtle populations existing in the region include beach development, fishing activities, noise from neighbouring villages, pollution from the nearby harbour, unchecked construction of concrete structures in the name of huts and exploitation of turtle products. Dr Firdous added that she personally felt that housing and human activities initiated within five kilometers of turtle nesting areas would aggravate the situation.

She said that she was not exactly aware of the employees' housing scheme, but would like to add that human activities including lighting, noise and other environmental pollution along the beaches and coastal belt need to be examined carefully to save the national marine ecology and flora and fauna.