Experts at a media seminar underlined the need for effective environmental impact assessment (EIA) to mitigate environmental damages and losses to national kitty.
Hailing from planning and environmental sectors, these experts also called upon the state departments, the project executors and above all the media to play their due role in implementation of EIA and promoting strategic environmental assessment (SEA) culture.
Speaking as chief guest, Jawed Ali Khan, Director General of the Environment Wing, Ministry of National Disaster Management, underlined the need for effective impact assessment and saying that EIA does not oppose development, but rather contributes to making it more sustainable.
He urged collective efforts by the government departments, civil society and media and recommended tools like EIA and SEA to protect environment and ensure sustainable development.
The seminar was organised under the National Impact Assessment Programme (NIAP), being jointly implemented by the Government of Pakistan and IUCN. The programme aims to contribute to sustainable development in Pakistan by strengthening EIA and introducing SEA in Pakistan’s development planning process.
NIAP has four partners: the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency; Environment Wing, Ministry of Environment; Environment Section, Planning Commission and IUCN Pakistan. Technical assistance to the programme is being provided by the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment while the project is being funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands.
Jan Willem Cools, First Secretary (Environment and Water) Development Section, EKN emphasized the role of media in raising awareness on the issues of EIA and SEA.
In the opening remarks, Dr Aurangzeb Khan, Chief Environment Section, Planning Commission of Pakistan/ NIAP National Project Director said the country faces many challenges in promoting EIA and SEA. He stressed the need for focusing on EIA, improving its quality and effective application of SEA for sustainable development.
Dr Parvaiz Naim pointed out that the lack of guidance in policies and called upon media to highlight these shortcomings.
Asif Shuja Khan, Director General, Pak-EPA highlighted the importance of EIA and SEA, saying that we must deal with environment as a national issue and educate our policy makers to ensure sustainable development.
During the interactive session, the experts responded to questions about EIA and SEA while underlining the collective efforts to address the environment related issues.
Former Minister of State for Environment, Malik Amin Aslam, Impact Assessment Expert, Dr. Parvaiz Naim and DG Pak-EPA, Asif Shuja Khan were among the panelists.
They had a common notion that role of media was imperative to educate people on the subjects of EIA and SEA which it plays as a overseer for proper execution of policies by the government departments and the private sector. All panelists agreed that devolution of the subject of environment has hampered certain initiatives due to lack of capacity at the provincial level.
“It is due to media’s efforts that now the executors prefer to get EIA done first,” said Malik Amin Aslam. HE recommended that EIA and SEA should be the part of the initial project instead of doing it at the time of execution. He observed that if SEA had been carried out for the CNG policy we would not have been facing the present crisis.
