PESHAWAR
The first meeting of the supervisory committee, constituted to deliberate upon the action plan to improve air quality and control pollution in Peshawar, was held on Thursday.
The provincial minister for health and finance chaired the meeting which was attended by other committee members including MPA Asif Khan, MPA Ayesha Banu, secretary environment Abid Majeed, director general environment protection agency Anwar Khan, deputy commissioner Shafiullah Khan, traffic police chief Abbas Majeed Marwat and other concerned officials.
The committee was briefed on the causes of increase in air pollution and the actions taken against them.
The committee was told that the main cause of air pollution is smoke emitted by vehicles due to use of substandard oil, old vehicles and traffic congestion.
“The second major source of air pollution is the brick kilns which are built in the traditional way. Other sources of air pollution are man-crushing plants, blasting for minerals, sugar, steel furnaces and open-air grinding of raw materials in the manufacture of plaster of paris,” the members informed.
It further elaborated that air pollution in the provincial capital has increased due to open barbeque on University Road and smoke from steel and re-rolling mills located in Jamrud Shacks area.
Similarly, the air pollution is increasing significantly from the chipboard industry located in the industrial state, including the cement factories and the open burning of waste.
Secretary environment department Abid Majeed informed the committee about the steps taken for curbing the menace of pollution in Peshawar.
He said that the installation of air quality monitors in the province was mandatory to deal with air pollution, adding that it will help to control pollution in different cities of the province and could be evaluated with preventive measures.
“Installation of air quality monitors has been completed at eight branches of Bank of Khyber with the help of private organization SEED,” he added.
Abid Majeed said that a survey of air quality monitors necessary for the urban centers across the province with the help of a private organization SEED.
He termed data collection more important for taking pragmatic steps in controlling air pollution.
The committee was informed that out of twelve hundred clay kilns, only two were converted to zigzag technology. Plastic bag manufacturing factories have been given a six-month period to switch to an environmentally-friendly plastic bag manufacturing process.
Taimur Saleem Jhagra while speaking on this occasion informed the participants that incinerators were being outsourced in major hospitals.
Instructions have also been issued for the establishment of waste water treatment plants for contaminated water from hospitals, he added.
The participants of the meeting deliberated over converting the Climate Change Cell in the EPA into a Directorate of Climate Change.
The Implementation Committee under the leadership of the Commissioner will make recommendations for these actions, on which further implementation and enforcement will be determined.
The committee was informed that an updated draft of the provincial climate change policy has been sent to Chief Minister Mehmood Khan for approval.
The committee was told that large industries do not switch on the pollution control system during production which saves a lot of electricity.
