'There's a need for capacity building': Secretary Punjab Environmental Protection Department

BR Research recently sat down with Iqbal Muhammad Chauhan - Secretary Punjab Environmental Protection Department - to hear about the department's structure, functions and recent activities. Below are edited transcripts of an insightful discussion.
BR Research: Brief us on the structure and organisation of the Punjab Environmental Protection Department.
Iqbal Muhammad Chauhan: In 1983, we had our first Pakistan Environmental Protection Ordinance at the federal level. In 1987, we had the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formed in each province. The focus on environment came in late 80s and early 90s with Article 9 of Right to Life including healthy environment amongst other things in 1994. In 1996, Environmental Protection Department in Punjab was formed. The difference between Environment Protection Agency and Environmental Protection Department is that it's the agency's role to regulate the environment, while the role of the department headed by a secretary is basically confined to supervising the agency, policy making in the realm of environment protection in Punjab, and co-ordinating with other government agencies.
In 2001, environmental governance was devolved at the local level through local government ordinance. Then in 2010, environment was devolved amongst other subjects to the provinces through 18th Amendment to the Constitution, whereby the role of federal EPA was shifted to the provinces. As environment became a provincial subject, we had to come up with our own Environmental Protection Act, which was formed in 2012. It was in fact the adoption of Pakistan Act of 1997 with some amendments.
The environmental subject took a notch up in the same year when it was decided in the SAARC conference held in Pakistan that a cases pertaining to environmental degradation and issues will be given to an assigned judges for hearing. All this has led to the restructuring of the Environmental Protection Agency in terms of its capacity and scope.
As far as the department is concerned, we have a very small skeletal structure with the secretary supported by an additional secretary, and deputy secretaries since our function is very limited. Coming to Punjab Environmental Protection Agency, there is a supra body called the Punjab Environmental Protection counsel formed around five years ago and headed by chief minister. Under the chief minister are the Secretary and a DGEP- Director General who heads the Environmental Protection Agency assisted by the legal technical and administrative people. This is the current structure of EPA; we have 6 directors with assistant and deputy directors, and we are spread out in every district.
BRR: What are the functions of Punjab Environmental Protection Department and the Agency?
IMC: Protection, conservation, rehabilitation, improvement of the environment, prevention and control of pollution, and promotion of sustainable development are the key functions of the agency in which the department plays its advisory and policy making role in the same realm.
BRR: So what is the status of environment as per your department in Punjab?
IMC: I have identified certain gaps in Punjab's environmental health, and most of them eventually come down to the lack of capacity. Section 6 of our Environmental Protection Act 2012 says that we should have sectoral advisory committees in areas like air, water quality, waste management for municipal, industrial waste etc, which would guide the agency from time to time. The issue is that we still haven't formulated these committees. Then, we need to work on our Environmental Quality Standards. Currently what we have are those that have been adopted by the federal government, and they are also not complete and updated in certain areas.
We also need to establish systems and procedures for surveys, surveillance, monitoring, measurement, examination, investigation, research, inspection and audit to prevent and control pollution as we do not have the capacity to currently perform all these functions.
We lack capacity to work on the promotion of Research and Development of science and technology for prevention of pollution and protection of environment and sustainable development. Currently, we have around eight laboratories in Punjab, but their functioning is limited to basic tests. We need to upgrade the capacity to conduct complicated tests and analysis. As per the Act, we also have to certify one or more research institutes as environmental research institutes for conducting researches. We do have researches being conducted at LUMS, FC College and a couple of other institutes, but so far we do not have linkages and collaborations with these research institutes, which we definitely need to develop.
Then we have to identify the need for legislation in various sectors of the environment; we need to work on certain guidelines, rules and regulations, but again we do not have the capacity in terms of human resource to carry on with this task.
As per Section 6 of the Environmental Act, we have to establish provincial sustainable development fund to fund schemes in the public and the private sector, and even NGOs. This fund has to be raised by government grants, donations and some other income generating activities by the agency.
Another area under Section 6 of the Act is that we could get foreign assistance as well. There is a climate change adaptability fund set up under the UN auspices. India has so far taken $32 billion from this fund for its environmental projects. We have hardly taken any money from this fund as we lack the capacity and the initiative.
BRR: How do you plan to build capacity?
IMC: One, we have proposed is to have an Environmental Protection Counsel with limited members, restricting them to 15 from amongst the pubic as well as private sector members as it is very hard to make all 35 members present at any particular place and time. Secondly, we have proposed for flexibility in chairing this counsel to push policy making; for example in case the Chief Minister is not available, the Minister for Environmental Protection could chair the session.
In EPA's structure, we already have five Directors and intend to add three more to make them eight. We want to establish a centre for research cum monitoring and control of environmental pollution. We suggest that instead of having district officers at district level who are paid by the EPA but report to District Co-ordination Officer (DCO), we should confine ourselves to divisional headquarters. Punjab is divided into nine divisions, and we should strengthen our capacities at the divisional levels.
We have directorates in laboratories, finance, HR, planning and co-ordination, prosecution etc. We are now proposing to have new Directorates in three areas broadly: Director Environmental Law and Policy for framing of rules and regulations with the help of consultants, separates Directorates in air, water and waste water for research, monitoring and surveillance, and nine zonal directors.
BRR: What are the department's activities and projects nowadays?
IMC: There are some important projects that we are undertaking. In 2007 we started working on our flagship project - Biodiversity Park at Murree - which is near its completion. Punjab Government has spent Rs94 million on this project. We are working with a couple of private sector players for its maintenance.
Last year, we started working on waste water treatment especially of those industries that emit a lot of chemicals. One such area is the tanning process of skins and hides. There was a waste water treatment plant operational at a tannery in Kusoor in 2004, but when I took over as the secretary last year, it was marred with issues like management, financial, mechanical, technical, and expansion problems. During this one year, we have tried to make it functional where 25 percent of the waste water is being treated and thrown in River Ravi. We are also in touch with IADO for a state-of-the-art waste water treatment plant near Sialkot.
Being only the regulators, our function are not to install and build projects. We only provide the seed money for the land acquisition while the financing is done through donations and collaborations with private sector players. We look at the needs, status, enforcement co-ordination, linkages and bindings of these projects. We are to set standards, monitor and sensitise.
We have proposed the government in light of our experience with Kusoor Plant to have a separate company for the province, which would have waste water treatment plants setups in all the major industrial estates. We have positive hopes from it.
We conduct Environmental impact assessment of all mega projects in Punjab. We look at the alternates, pros and cons of the projects in these assessment studies. A similar one was done for the signal- free corridors for Jail Road and Main Boulevard Gulberg Lahore just recently. Another one in the process is the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project
Apart from the creating capacity, there is a need to create awareness among all stakeholders, and sensitise them towards environmental issue.
BRR: How do you compare Punjab's situation with other province in terms of environmental protection?
IMC: The situation in Punjab is much better in terms of protection and regulation of the environment. And it can play an important role in creating awareness and set example for other provinces. For that, we need co-ordination among the provincial governments and the federation. However, you must remember that three years since devolution is a very short span of time to make all the right moves and creating all these capacities. We need to create awareness at general public level, and at the same time the masses need to show interest in environmental protection for this area to prosper.