KARACHI: The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) has asked the Defence Housing Authority not to create third party interests or to initiate any development work in it’s recently launched residential-cum-housing scheme without seeking environmental clearance from it first.
Sources in the provincial environmental watchdog said that the newly appointed Director-General of Sepa, Naeem A. Mughal, in an official letter, had informed the administrator of the DHA that the authority had so far not submitted any environmental impact assessment report to Sepa regarding the commencement of a major development project off the Superhighway, but started inviting applications from the general public, which was tantamount to violating the provisions of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997.
They added that the DHA had been asked to submit its response to Sepa in writing by Aug 8, 2009, regarding the status of the project and also to refrain from initiating any development projects on the land without prior approval of an EIA report, which was supposed to be submitted long before the launching of any project.
According to DHA communications, the authority had started offering plots of various sizes, ranging from 200 to 2,000 square yards, for residential and commercial purposes in its proposed DHA City, spread over an area of about 12,000 acres of land having a four-kilometre frontage on the Superhighway, located in the proximity of the upcoming ‘Educational City’.
Environmental rules make it mandatory upon the owners and sponsors of projects like expressways, bypasses, major roads, housing schemes, bridges, water supply projects, oil and gas exploration projects, power plants, desalination plants, industrial waste treatment plants, industrial, chemical and manufacturing plants, commercialisation projects for roads and residential plots or installation of fuel stations to make sure that no environmental hazards are involved.
For the purpose, the environmental impact assessment is undertaken before allowing execution of such projects, and, according to the environment laws of the country, the relevant government agencies are required to thoroughly review a proposed project right from the time it launches it to when it finally becomes operational.
However, conservation activists have been observing that while agencies appear not as active as they should be, the higher authorities seem lacking in the will to make certain that no mega-project is allowed to be executed without undergoing such an assessment and getting clearance as per the environmental rules.
A source said that not too long ago Sepa was badly criticised for holding public hearings, as part of the EIA proceedings, for a steel plant and a flyover which was already under construction.
Sepa DG Mughal told Dawn that under new initiatives aimed at enforcement and increasing effectiveness of environmental laws and relevant organs, his agency had now decided to issue letters and notices to all concerned and executers of mega-projects and housing schemes, as these needed to be examined for their environmental and social impact and adaptation of mitigation measures right from the construction stage and during the operational phase of the projects.
‘My attention has been drawn to the DHA City project as well, and I feel that development of such a big city on virgin land involving the existing resources, human and wildlife, flora and fauna, hydrology, energy, natural drainage and rain encatchments and land use, needs to be minutely judged in line with the PEPA,’ Mr Mughal said, adding that he had asked the proponent in question to furnish an EIA report pertaining to the project at the earliest.
He said that he had gone through the DHA advertisements and other relevant information and sent a letter to the housing authority drawing its attention to the fact that it was required to fulfil all legal requirements as envisaged in Section 12 of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1977 as well as relevant portions of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency Regulations, 2000.
Section 12 of Pepa states that no proponent of a project shall commence construction or operation unless he or she has filed with the federal/provincial agency an initial environmental examination or, where the project is likely to cause an adverse environmental effect, an environmental impact assessment has obtained from the federal/provincial approval in respect thereof.
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