KARACHI: Ignorance of law is not the excuse and article 24 of Sindh Environmental Protection Act 2014 empowers you to take a legal action even government organizations if they found guilty of polluting the environment by any mean said by director Technical (T) of Environmental Protection Agency Government of Sindh (EPA Sindh) Waqar Hussain Phulpoto during a field visit of regional offices at Mirpurkhas and Hyderabad of EPA Sindh.
At Mirpurkhas, Regional Office In Charge Sohaib memom briefed him about present situation of hospital waste management along with solid waste management, while presiding a personal hearing proceedings director T has came to know that proponent M/S Muhammad medical college & hospital, M/S St tereser , M/S Civil hospital Mirpurkhas, Marie Medical hospital , Bhatti medical and dental college and other were found of non compliance of Hospital Waste Management Rules (HWMR) 2014 of SEPA Act 2014 as either most of them they were not separating hospital waste HW in accordance to law or mixing it with other wastes along with burning of HW in an open space.
After talking to the representatives of proponents director T gave direction to regional office in charge to serve them Environmental protection order EPO to fix their all the shortcomings related to HW within 30 days time and if they do not compliance properly then a legal action would taken as director T has said that our basic aim is to facilitate them rather to intimidate to make sure the compliance of law as he further said that responsibility lies on the proponent who is occupying, owning and operating the space related to HWM
During a visit of regional office Hyderabad ROH, regional office in charge gave a detail presentation to Director T about the problems ROH is confronting related to its work and what steps ROH has taken to fix the problems allied to hospital waste, water pollution (industrial and domestic), kilns, stone crushing units, inspection of burning of old toxic batteries, waste disposal, monitoring of high rise buildings etc.
ROH in charge briefed him that for HW and health care both public and private ,20 health care providers is being monitored and for rest of them EPO will be issued, for water pollution both upstream and downstream particularly at Manchar lake, Keenjhar lake, KB Feeder and Phulleli canal steps have taken with relevant stake holders like irrigation department and others along with inspection of these places and collection of water samples etc and for stone crushing units and inspection of burning of old toxic batteries detail survey of the vicinity where they are present has been done and not only that with the help of local police number of them has been shut down and for others legal action is being taken place similarly for high rise buildings ROH is scheduling monitoring with Sindh Building Control Authority SBCH etc.
Director T further directed ROH to scheduled a meeting with local administration and the line departments to solve these issues and particularly to waste disposal at landfill sites, similar directions has been given to ROM as Director T has said despite of all constraints EPA Sindh is doing is utmost to solve all the environmental issues as betterment of natural environment and taken care of implication due to environmental degradation on masses is our first and foremost priority.
