KARACHI: The Sindh Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has sealed 17 factories in Sindh – out of them seven are in Karachi – saying that the units were disregarding environment laws.
“We will continue to go after those who are polluting the environment and damaging Sindh’s economy,” SEPA Director General Baqaullah Unnar told The Express Tribune.
Despite all the recent measures taken by SEPA in the last few months, environment experts say factory owners in Sindh are generally not complying with environment laws and do not care about the environmental degradation they cause.
Environment experts say SEPA only acted when the Supreme Court of Pakistan started taking up environment cases.
Otherwise, no government department was ready to take on polluters, especially powerful factory owners, who are playing with human and marine life in Arabian Sea.
They also say environment ministry is the least important ministry for the Sindh government.
When asked what action is he taking against those factories that were earlier issued notices, Unnar said that the agency will evaluate those units and take action against them if they fail to comply with the laws.
SEPA asked industries to install separate effluent treatment plants to process their waste water because it is fast becoming a big environmental hazard for Pakistan.
Karachi industrialists say Sindh government should fulfil its promise of setting up five combined effluent treatment plants in the industrial zones instead of acting against factories.
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