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National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) has expressed serious concerns over the reports that the project of installing combined effluent treatment plants in industrial zones of Karachi is getting unduly delayed due to usual bureaucratic hurdles that in this case are quite harmful for the city’s environment.
In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the NFEH President Naeem Qureshi said that it was high time the government should expedite implementation on the installation of combined effluent treatment plants (CETP) in response to an emergent need to protect the coastal ecosystem of Karachi which is degrading day by day.
He said that the CETPs should be installed at the earliest before the industrial waste generated in Karachi caused irreversible damage to the marine environment along the city’s shoreline.
He said that the project of constructing CETPs at industrial zones should not meet the same fate as that of the S-III Greater Karachi Sewerage Treatment Plan as implementation on S-III had been getting unduly delayed for last several years.
“This project is of such importance for Karachi that the federal and Sindh governments while leaving aside their mutual differences should combine their resources to get this project completed at the earliest,” said the NFEH president.
He lamented that bureaucratic hurdles had been created in implementing the project of CETPs at such time when its executing agency i.e. Karachi Water & Sewerage Board had made ample homework and progress in this regard.
“It is highly deplorable that instead of lending support to the executing agency of the project the bureaucracy has assumed its usual role here too by creating hurdles in its passage,” he said.
He said that the KWSB by giving contracts for constructing the CETPs at the two of total five sites in Karachi had in actual started the work for completing this project that had been conceived several years back.
“It is quite disappointing that the bureaucracy is using its usual means of red-tapism to delay this project without realizing its importance for environment of the city,” he said.
He said that it was quite normal hat the estimated cost of the project had increased as had been the case of all such gigantic projects whose implementation remained delayed for several years.
“The federal and Sindh government should combine their fiscal strength to bear the escalated cost of the project,” said the NFEH president.
He said that if in case S-III remained incomplete and CETPs were not established in Karachi then around 100 million gallons daily of industrial waste would continue to flow from the city into the sea without any treatment as that is quite harmful for the marine ecosystem.
“Without implementing S-III and CETPs projects the government will never able to make sustainable the industrial expansion and growth of Karachi that should always be the ultimate goal for the progress of the Pakistan’s economy,” he said.
He said that industries of Karachi should grow but at the same their operations should cause minimal harm to the city’s environment as that is the only way to get maximum benefit out of the city for the good of the Pakistani economy.
Giving expert view on the project sustainability, advisor NFEH and Senior Environmentalist Saquib Ejaz Hussain said that the design and implementation of a relevant price structure for both fresh and reclaimed/recycled water is the first step as a well-designed tariff structure can meet multiple policy objectives, including supporting the financial stability of the managing utility, the efficient allocation of water and other resources as well as environmental sustainability. Considering that the region suffers from water scarcity, the latter should be developed while keeping in mind that the price of water for reuse in the industrial zones should be more attractive than that of fresh water, especially for the biggest consumers and polluters within the zones. Considering the need to address the increasing water scarcity issues, governments, all over the world, are trying to encourage industries to conserve and recycle the limited water supplies. The most common incentives in place are tax based, through credits, deductions or accelerated depreciation for expenditure on water-saving, recycling or treatment equipment, and non-tax based through direct grants or subsidies.
According to Hussain, the Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) aim at reducing the pressures on public budgets, drawing in operating efficiencies of specialized businesses, and generally providing access to new technology, capital and skills. In most cases, the partnership’s scope is limited to operations and maintenance which is the simplest form of private sector involvement but considering the specific case of the Study Zones, the scope of private operators’ involvement should be expanded to the management of WTPs as well as transport of effluents if any. The latter option would also contribute to the creation of jobs. In order to successfully attract the private sector and to improve the level and the efficiency of services, the roles of the public authorities, including the GoS, KS&WB and SEPA, have to be redefined. It is essential that the government demonstrates a stronger political commitment, creates an enabling legal and institutional framework, promotes technical skills among the relevant stakeholders.
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