In an unprecedented move, the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency has halted public hearing of two multi-storied residential-cum-commercial projects in PECHS and North Nazimabad areas after realizing that Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) reports for these under-construction buildings have very basic flaws.
The SEPA officials said that public hearing would again be held once proponents of the two high-rise projects would remove flaws from the EIA documents for these two projects, while on next occasion, ample time would be given to quarters concerned to express their reservations over constructions of these two buildings.
Additional Director General of SEPRA SM Yahya chaired public hearing held the other day at a local hotel for the two high- rise projects. The public hearing was meant to listen to reservations of relevant quarters on construction of Green Two project in Block 2 area of PESCS and also for Mont Vista project in North Nazimabad.
The public hearing was called off when EIA report for Green Two project was being evaluated and discussed by the quarters concerned. The EIA document for project being constructed in North Nazimabad could not be taken up. During the public hearing, participants including concerned area residents and representatives of civil society organizations including National Forum for Environment and Health expressed serious concerns over unplanned construction of these two projects without proper authorization of the relevant building plans.
The concerned area residents and representatives of NGO said that in case these two projects would be completed along with their proposed heavy commercial and residential use, there was no guarantee on the part of civic authorities concerned that essential utility services including water, power supply, and drainage would be available to dwellers of nearby areas on uninterrupted basis.
The concerned quarters said that once completed and made fully operational, these high-rise commercial projects would cause serious problems in flow of vehicular traffic on nearby lanes and service roads and also cause to further shrink park space available for vehicles in the surrounding localities. Participants of public hearing were also informed that public utilities related to gas and water supply had so far refused to provide basic utility services to 20-storey building in PECHS area.
The concerned representatives of NGOs said that EIA documents for the two projects had several inconsistencies and flaws regarding designing, execution, and operational phase of the two projects so much so that proper mitigation plans were not given in these documents to cope with environmental hazards and threatening situation feared to be evolved in the city’s two residential localities due to multi-storied projects being built there.
The concerned attendees of the hearing said that design and construction plans of the two residential-cum-commercial projects could never be passed by civic authorities concerned owing to basic flaws present in the plans that would cause serious environmental issues. They also said that information given in the EIA documents for these two projects had contained glaring mistakes and irregularities in a large number to the extent that one could easily decipher that contents from EIA reports for other commercial projects of similar nature in the city had been copied and reproduced for printing new reports pertaining to assessment of impact on environment of the areas concerned.
They also said that construction of the two projects was already under way before holding the public regarding on EIA reports for these two high-rise building thus proponents of the projects had violated the stipulated civic and environmental by-laws. The officials of the SEPA announced to again hold public hearing for the two projects without specifying new dates for the purpose. The officials of the environmental watchdog present on the occasion also largely desisted from showing any reaction or feedback to serious reservations of participating public on construction of the two projects.
It is indeed sad to read this. Public Hearings are meant to hear and resolve public concerns; not that it should be redone. Is it some kind of a joke?
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