ISLAMABAD: The issue of leakage of over 3000 tonnes of hazardous chemicals from underground stores during recent floods, raised by United Nations and in a press report, is now going to be investigated by the Ministry of Environment.
A preliminary report containing the UN findings as well as clippings of the press report has already been handed over to the prime minister’s office. UN findings were presented at the climate moot held in Cancun, Mexico last month, and revealed that these chemicals were an addition to the count of ‘Persistent Organic Pollutants(POP)’ that is regulated under the UN Stockholm Convention of which Pakistan is a recent signatory.
The ministry, even though was present at the moot, only took notice of the issue after the news was published in a local newspaper.
“The file has been given to the PM and we will approach the National Disaster Management (NDMA) and the provincial governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa once we get an approval,” an official asking not to be named told Pakistan Today, adding that this issue was sensitive and POPs could have devastating effects on the environment. Exposure to POPs can cause cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, cancer, and disruption in the endocrine and reproduction system. According to a 2009 preliminary audit report on Pakistan’s POP stockpiles, stores all over the country contain at least 6000 tonnes of chemicals.”Half of these stores are located in low-lying flood-hit areas,” says the report.
Pakistan has locked POPs stockpiles in drums under strict security in Nizampur (KP) and in some areas of Punjab, which the environmentalists believe were inundated during the recent floods. “UNEP’s report is false,” Federal Secretary for Environment Muhammad Javed Malik said, adding that Pakistan has refused UN’s help in dealing with POP leakage issue.
