ISLAMABAD – With the devolution of Ministry of Environment to the provincial level from the federal, the fate of the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (PEPA) and its Central Laboratory for Environmental Analysis (CLEAN) is hanging in the balance. Despite being equipped with computerised analytical equipment, the PEPA laboratory has been dysfunctional for a long time because of a lack of ownership and interest by the relevant ministry and unavailability of qualified staff. PEPA, with the help of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), had established CLEAN, which is worth million, with the goal of research and development in the field of environment at its premises in Islamabad. The laboratory comprises three sections, analytical, field measurement and sampling. The laboratory had facilities for analysing pollutants in air, water and soil besides determining toxicity in food and other products, but nothing had been analysed here for long.
Sustainable Development Policy Institute’s Climate Change Centre Head Shakil Ramay told Pakistan Today that according to the World Bank’s report on environmental issues in Pakistan, the environmental protection agencies were few in number and thus it was not feasible to leave the responsibility of protecting the environment to them alone. He said that EPA had failed to attain its goal as air pollution was increasing manifold in Islamabad and none of the cities had been protected satisfactorily. He said the solution was not to devolve the ministry; rather the government should have focused on the issue more seriously and taken adequate steps to improve its performance.
Quoting the case of India and Pakistan where such issues were taken up in Track-II dialogue, he said environmental problems had no physical boundary and wind and water-pollution had its impact across borders. He said it was decided in bilateral talks in December last year that before initiating any project India would share its EIA report with Pakistan, however in the absence of a federal environment protection agency who would evaluate the report was an important consideration.
