By Ali Raza
LAHORE: THE Provincial Planning and Development Department has directed all the public sector departments as well as district governments to strictly follow environmental laws before initiating any kind of public sector projects to avoid future objections, criticism and law suits.
Sources said the Planning and Development Secretary recently directed all the public sector departments as well as the district governments to include provisions of environmental laws while approving development projects. Sources claimed that in past several cases were reported to the P&D in which international donors backed off from the projects or refused to approve them due to non availability of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports of the projects.
Section 12 of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (PEPA), 1997, has made it mandatory for the public as well as private sector to make initial environmental examination (IEE) and environmental impact assessment (EIA) of every project.
“No proponent of a project shall commence cons
truction or operation unless he has filed with the Federal Agency an initial environmental examination or, where the project is likely to cause an adverse environmental effect, an environmental impact assessment, and has obtained from the Federal Agency approval in respect thereof,” EPD officials said while quoting the Act.
After submission of IEE or EIA report, the federal agency reviews the IEE or EIA reports of the project and issues NOC of approval for the project. It is pertinent to mention here that Section 12 of the Act also made it clear that every review of an environmental impact assessment shall be carried out with public participation
EPD sources revealed that majority of the public sector departments were not aware of the mandatory condition mentioned in PEPA Act 1997 due to which they failed in including IEE or EIA reports in the PC-1 of the projects. Sources said another reason of ignoring environmental laws among the public as well as private sector was that preparing IEE or EIA report increased the project costs due to the hiring of consultants and environmental experts.
According to the gazette notification dated June 13, 2000, the projects required submission of IEE and EIA included poultry, livestock, stud, fish farms, projects involving repacking, formulation or warehousing of agriculture products, hydropower generation projects, thermal power projects, transmission lines, large distribution projects, oil and gas transmission systems, oil and gas extraction projects, including exploration, production, gathering systems, separation and storage, waste-to-energy generation projects, ceramics and glass units, food processing industries, including sugar mills, beverages, mild and dairy products, man-made fibers and resin projects, manufacturing of apparel, dyeing, printing, wood products, smelting plants, commercial extraction of sand, gravel, limestone, clay and sulphur, crushing, grinding and separation processes, federal or provincial highways (except maintenance, rebuilding or reconstruction of existing metal roads), ports and harbor development, dams, reservoirs, irrigation and drainage projects, small-scale irrigation systems, water supply schemes, treatment plants, waste disposal facilities for domestic or industrial wastes, housing schemes, public facilities, urban development projects, nuclear power plants, petroleum refineries, cement plants, chemical plants, fertilizer plants, industrial estates, export processing zones, pesticides, petrochemical complex, textile, plastic products and airports.
When contacted, EPD spokesman claimed that the EPD had initiated a massive training programme for the awareness of public sector departments. He said the department had engaged senior professors of different universities and environmental experts to train government officials. The training programme was being run for a week in a month and two such sessions had already been completed, the spokesman added.
Published in Daily The News on Friday, January 22, 2010.
LAHORE: THE Provincial Planning and Development Department has directed all the public sector departments as well as district governments to strictly follow environmental laws before initiating any kind of public sector projects to avoid future objections, criticism and law suits.
Sources said the Planning and Development Secretary recently directed all the public sector departments as well as the district governments to include provisions of environmental laws while approving development projects. Sources claimed that in past several cases were reported to the P&D in which international donors backed off from the projects or refused to approve them due to non availability of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports of the projects.
Section 12 of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (PEPA), 1997, has made it mandatory for the public as well as private sector to make initial environmental examination (IEE) and environmental impact assessment (EIA) of every project.
“No proponent of a project shall commence cons
truction or operation unless he has filed with the Federal Agency an initial environmental examination or, where the project is likely to cause an adverse environmental effect, an environmental impact assessment, and has obtained from the Federal Agency approval in respect thereof,” EPD officials said while quoting the Act.After submission of IEE or EIA report, the federal agency reviews the IEE or EIA reports of the project and issues NOC of approval for the project. It is pertinent to mention here that Section 12 of the Act also made it clear that every review of an environmental impact assessment shall be carried out with public participation
EPD sources revealed that majority of the public sector departments were not aware of the mandatory condition mentioned in PEPA Act 1997 due to which they failed in including IEE or EIA reports in the PC-1 of the projects. Sources said another reason of ignoring environmental laws among the public as well as private sector was that preparing IEE or EIA report increased the project costs due to the hiring of consultants and environmental experts.
According to the gazette notification dated June 13, 2000, the projects required submission of IEE and EIA included poultry, livestock, stud, fish farms, projects involving repacking, formulation or warehousing of agriculture products, hydropower generation projects, thermal power projects, transmission lines, large distribution projects, oil and gas transmission systems, oil and gas extraction projects, including exploration, production, gathering systems, separation and storage, waste-to-energy generation projects, ceramics and glass units, food processing industries, including sugar mills, beverages, mild and dairy products, man-made fibers and resin projects, manufacturing of apparel, dyeing, printing, wood products, smelting plants, commercial extraction of sand, gravel, limestone, clay and sulphur, crushing, grinding and separation processes, federal or provincial highways (except maintenance, rebuilding or reconstruction of existing metal roads), ports and harbor development, dams, reservoirs, irrigation and drainage projects, small-scale irrigation systems, water supply schemes, treatment plants, waste disposal facilities for domestic or industrial wastes, housing schemes, public facilities, urban development projects, nuclear power plants, petroleum refineries, cement plants, chemical plants, fertilizer plants, industrial estates, export processing zones, pesticides, petrochemical complex, textile, plastic products and airports.
When contacted, EPD spokesman claimed that the EPD had initiated a massive training programme for the awareness of public sector departments. He said the department had engaged senior professors of different universities and environmental experts to train government officials. The training programme was being run for a week in a month and two such sessions had already been completed, the spokesman added.
Published in Daily The News on Friday, January 22, 2010.
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