Punjab: Environment budget cut by 50pc

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Ali Raza
IGNORING the alarming increase in pollution, especially air and water pollution, and demands of the masses for a strategy to cope with the issue, the Punjab government in its budget has reduced annual allocations of the Punjab Environment Department to Rs 500 million, which was 50 per cent less than the previous year’s allocation of Rs 1 billion. The amount will be spent on total 19 schemes, including 11 new schemes and 8 ongoing schemes. Out of Rs 500 million, Rs 343.121 million will be spent on the ongoing schemes and Rs 156.879 million on the new schemes.

Reduction in last year’s allocation in the EPD budget, shows lack of interest of the government, which last year revised the total allocation of Rs 1 billion to Rs 474 million, disabling the department to complete its schemes.

It is pertinent to mention here that during the year 2008-09, the EPD also failed in achieving various targets such as the department only completed 20 per cent monitoring of surface water bodies in the province. Out of the total target of establishing environmental laboratories in six districts of the province, the EPD only completed 40 per cent of the task.

This year the government’s vision is to attain sustainable development through integration of economic and environmental considerations for which the policy framework included implementation of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (PEPA), 1997, and National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) in the province.

Under the new policy, the government has directed the EPD authorities to increase environmental awareness among the masses, collaborate with the NGOs/CBOs for undertaking environment-related projects, review of the IEE/EIA and issuance of environmental approvals and conducting campaigns against smoke and noise-emitting vehicles. The environmental policy for the year 2009-10 also focused on the promotion of research and development in pollution prevention and environmental improvement, monitoring industrial and municipal wastes, encouraging sustainable development, provision of information on environment-friendly technologies and coordinating with the federal and provincial governments on environmental issues, policies and laws.

The new projects of the EPD included establishment of the environmental resource centre costing Rs 3 million and environmental information centre and upgrade of the EPA Library at the cost of Rs 10 million, pilot project for introduction of solar energy at grassroots level (Rs 34.505 million), designing and fabrication of pollution control units in selected industries, including cotton engineering, poultry protein feeds, pulp and paper and re-rolling mills (Rs 6 million), feasibility study for introducing environmental-friendly technologies in brick kilns (Rs 2 million), strengthening field staff for environmental monitoring and compliance (Rs 80 million), capacity building of stakeholders for mitigating climate change impacts and earning money from carbon funds (Rs 10 million) and introducing management and legal discipline to improve service delivery (Rs 11.374 million).

According to the budget allocations 2009-10 for the ongoing schemes, the government allocated Rs 9.820 million for monitoring of surface water bodies, Rs 5.390 million for monitoring and propagation of measures to mitigate arsenic and fluoride in drinking water, Rs 123.100 million for establishment of environmental laboratories in Sialkot, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Multan and Rahimyar Khan, Rs 5.960 million for provision of field monitoring kits to inspectors and establishment of mobile squads in three major cities, Rs 25.050 million for sensitisation of public through environment education, Rs 0.743 million for establishment of environmental clubs in public and private schools, Rs 56.580 million for regulatory control on environmental degradation through capacity building of the EPA, Rs 3.338 million for collaboration with educational institutions for development of indigenous technologies, Rs 80 million for development of biodiversity parks in collaboration with city district governments and business community and Rs 17.750 million for capacity building of provincial departments in environmental management through training in the IEE/EIA, EA and LCA. This included hiring of experts in relevant field for environmental protection, promotion and rehabilitation, recruitment of staff and arrangement of necessary material.

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