Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Environment and Alternative Energy, Noman Saigol, has issued instructions to the department to expedite implementation of the project on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) enabling activity of Sindh component so that its eventual benefit may be delivered at the grass-roots level.
He said that the dumps of pesticide lying at various locations throughout the province must be cleaned up to make the society free from such pollutants, because they are causing severe health and environmental impacts.
"This can only be possible if the said project may be implemented in its true spirit to pave the way for ultimate safe disposal of said dumps of pesticide," he added.
Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated a project on these POPs through United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) under its Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The objective of the GEF project is to strengthen capacity and build ownership in Pakistan to meet its obligation under the 'Stockholm Convention'. It also includes preparation of National Implementation Plan (NIP) of Pakistan for control and management of POPs.
Preparation of NIP is one of the requirements of the convention for its member countries. This project is being implemented through EPAs of all provinces including Sindh EPA.
Moreover, these POPs are organic compounds having unique chemical and physical properties. Once released in the environment these chemicals have tendency to persist for long duration.
These organic compounds also accumulate in fatty tissues of living organisms and result in contamination of food chain which have acute and chronic toxic effects on human beings and wild life, including development of tumours and cancers.
In this connection, a total of 12 chemicals have been selected in the project, while nine POPs listed under the programme are used in formulation of pesticides whereas three POPs are related to industrial activities.
There are four major activities to be conducted during the project which includes legal assessment and awareness raising, compilation of initial inventories and capacity assessment, POPs priority setting and evaluation of management options, and preparation of NIP.
Preparation of inventories of POPs in the country is one of the important project activities. This activity will be carried out in each province in co-ordination with respective provincial environmental protection agencies (EPAs).
The activities under the project have commenced in Sindh from April this year.
A comprehensive plan for collection of data along with monitoring and sampling of POPs at their sources is under preparation.
The project also aims at developing a network with concerned departments and organisations for collecting authentic information to meet the desired objectives.
A co-ordinated consultation would be held soon for taking the stakeholder onboard and to develop a work-plan for commencing exhaustive field survey.
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