The idle jetty of Pakistan Steel Mills is ideal for handling coal cargo, suggested participants of the public hearing on Thursday.
The corporate sector and citizens have shown their serious reservations over environmental issues that could possibly be increased due to the use of Port Qasim for transportation of coal to be imported from South Africa at port Qasim for Sahiwal power project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) master plan.
During a public hearing conducted by Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), citizens have urged the government to mitigate the environmental, technical and social implications of coal transshipment project and bound it under the environmental protection law before allowing it dumping up to 8 million tons of coal to be imported at berth 3 and 4 of Port Qasim.
The public meeting was called by SEPA to discuss the impact and aspects of coal transshipment project in view of proper traffic management, health and safety of labourers, air, noise, and water pollutions before giving official approval to the said project.
The meeting was attended by SEPA Director General Dr Naeem Mughal, Port Qasim Authority Director General Technical Shabbir Anwar Kazi, GEM’S CEO Dr Salim-uz-Zaman, Huaneng Fuyun Port and Shipping representatives and the concerned industrialists, businessmen, environmentalists, and social activists.
The report on Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project was presented by Global Environmental Management Services (GEMS) consultant Jibran during the public hearing. The report discussed impacts, aspects and mitigation of the project in brief.
Jibran said that the project comprises of two phases, including construction and operations. He said that location of the Port Qasim is very well connected to the transportation infrastructure of the country.
Therefore, it has been observed as an ideal site for the development of coal transshipment project, he said. Interacting with the general public, SEPA DG Naeem Mughal said that monitoring mechanism would be established to check if the project was implementing EPA laws or not.
He said that there are a number of developing countries globally that are handling coal projects in the residential area, however, these areas are not being affected so there is no sense to stop such projects in Pakistan. But the issues and grievances would be handled as per the law viewing the interest of Pakistan and its people, he added.
He also asked Port Qasim Authority’s officials to immediately stop the current system of handling of the imported coal at a number of locations at the port in a highly unregulated and scattered manner, terming such a practice an illegal activity causing serious damage to the environment.
The participants of the hearing said that existing import and industrial operations related to oil, food, pharmaceutical, automotive and other industries at Port Qasim area would be adversely affected due to the environment of the port area getting degraded due to bulk import, storage, and shipment of coal.
The concerned members of Bin Qasim Association of Trade and Industry (BQATI) who attended the hearing said that there was no need to build a new jetty to handle imported coal in huge quantity, when a jetty of Pakistan Steel Mills was presently idle in the same area.