Sindh government takes notice of delay in treatment plants

The Sindh Government has decided to contact with federal government for setting up the long pending Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs) in five industrial areas of Karachi.
Sources informed Business Recorder here on Tuesday that the provincial government has taken notice of the unnecessary delay in the Federal Government's said project and decided in principle to contact with the latter over the issue.
"The provincial government would soon take up the issue in front of federal government's concerned officials while a report regarding the project and the impacts of delay in its implementation was also being prepared for the purpose," sources said.
The project has immense importance for the smooth running of the country's exports in view of USA, Japan and many other European countries' warning that the export orders from Pakistan could be affected if the local industries would not adopt the environment friendly measures to discharge their sewerage.
The plan of setting up five ETPs in industrial areas of Karachi including Korangi, Landhi, F B Area and New Karachi industrial areas was prepared in the late 2004 by the Federal Ministry of Industries. The basic objective of establishing the plants was to ensure discharge of treated sewerage water into the sea to prevent marine and land environmental degradation in the coastal areas of Karachi.
But, the delay in the project not only posing threat to the marine life, but also to the lives of the people living along the coastline due to discharging of untreated chemical wastage of hundreds of factories of the city into the sea.
Sources further that that the project is in doldrums for the last three and half years and could not be initiated so far mainly because of the grave concerns of different stakeholders over the project.
Sources revealed that most of the reservations of the stakeholders covers the matter of the authorisation of the plants as no one of them was named as the commanding authority in the prototype model of the project, being prepared by a Scandinavian firm.
"In the project, no stakeholder including federal government, city government or private sector was named to run the project, that is the reason why the stakeholders did not take interest to contribute in the project," a provincial government official said. The Sindh Government would also take up the issue of authorisation of the project, source claimed adding that the provincial government is likely to claim its authority over these proposed treatment plants.