960419

Environmental pollution

Problems can't be solved

without participation

of private sector

KHALID ABBAS SAIF

FAISALABAD: The problem of environmental pollution in the country cannot be effectively solved until and unless the private sector is fully involved and engaged to participate in the collective efforts. This was stated by Mian Mohammad Latif, Chairman, Chenab Group and Faisalabad Dry Port and former Chairman, All-Pakistan Cloth Exporters Association. He was talking to a 20-member delegation of the IUCN comprising of prominent journalists working in metropolitan newspapers and currently attending a workshop organized at Faisalabad by IUCN. The delegation was led by Khalid Ahmad, former Editor, Frontier Post and famous TV compere, Obaidullah Beg, who met Mian Muhammad Latif here on Wednesday and thoroughly discussed with him the problems of the growing industrial pollution in Faisalabad.

He said that the environmental pollution was a world wide problem but it had become acuter in Pakistan. He said that the present government was fully alive to this menace and had started taking appropriate steps for its elimination by creating a separate Ministry to effectively combat the environmental pollution but all these efforts would prove futile without active participation of the private sector.

Mian Mohammad Latif suggested that the government should immediately constitute committees at provincial and district level and nominate the representatives of trade and industry on these committees to evolve methods for permanent solution of the environmental and industrial pollution.

Regarding the shifting of processing units from Maqbool Road and nearby vicinity to Khurrian Wala, Mian Mohammad Latif said that the shifting of the processing units outside the city would surely help reduce the pollution of the industrial water but the hasty shifting of these units from Maqbool Road till July 1, 1996, was not possible because their shifting and the construction of new factory buildings in Khurrian Wala will entail heavy expenses which the industrialists could not bear. Moreover, the construction of new buildings at Khurrian Wala and the installation of the machinery therein would take at least two years, hence the government should not force the processing units owners to complete the shifting of processing units within three months time. He demanded that the government should advance 'soft-term loans' to the owners of processing units of Maqbool Road for raising infrastructure at new site in Khurrian Wala.

Latif said that the government should also invite the private sector to install treatment plants in industrial zones and realise the cost from the concerned industrial units through easy instalments. He proposed that the WASA, Municipal Corporation, FDA and other bodies be directed to construct drainage system first and then install the treatment plants at their end for purification of the polluted water.

Citing the example of Nishat Abad Industrial Zone, Latif said that an industrial drain was already existing in the vicinity where the polluted industrial water of the Chenab Processing Mills, Nishat Textile Mills, Crescent Sugar Mills and other factories could be thrown and be treated after installing a treatment plant at drain.

About the environmental policy of the government, Latif said that there was still room for improvement. He observed that the government should take the industrialists into confidence before formulation and implementation of any policy.

Regarding the achievements of the Faisalabad Dry Port, Latif told the delegation that the Faisalabad Dry Port had emerged as number one port in the country within short span of two years. He said that an amount of rupees 25 million was spent over the construction of the Dry Port through self-financing while a huge amount of rupees 75 million would be spent under two-year expansion programme. The construction of a multi-storeyed Commercial Plaza at Faisalabad Dry Port would also involve an expenditure of rupees 35 million and the contract for it had already been awarded.

The delegation members later visited various sections of the Chenab Processing Mills.