Editorial: Protecting the environment in Balochistan

The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) in Balochistan has proved to be both powerless as well as ineffective for obvious reasons. It is unable to deliver the goods or protect the environment for future generations. The degradation of environment is in full swing in this province as the traffic Police too stopped checking the smoke emitting vehicles on roads, particularly the old and pre-dated model of passenger buses operating in the heart of the provincial Capital. The CNG revolution had brought the situation under control as most of the auto-rickshaws were switched over to CNG while new ones imported with CNG kits.

One of the main areas is air pollution in Quetta from where the kilns were banned and ultimately shifted to the outskirts, far away from the main city centre. However, the Department of Mineral Development had granted licenses for crushing plants in the surrounding hills kick up dust into the valley at a massive scale. The Government should cancel the licenses of the crushing plants in Quetta immediately and shift all those plants to far away from the provincial capital so that its environment is not affected in any way.

Another area is Gadani Ship-breaking Yard where discarded and condemned ships are brought for dismantling. Hundreds of tons of oil and other pollutants are discharged on the nice and clean Balochistan Coast polluting it to a great extent. The Government should ensure that no toxic materials are left in the ships before it is anchored at Gadani Yard for dismantling. Earlier, a US multinational corporation had shown interest in investing over 500 million US dollars for development of Lasbela coast. Everyone was surprised why a US corporation had shown so much interest to invest a huge amount in areas close to Gadani or Sonmiani. When checked, the corporation was more interested to reduce the Lasbela Coast as dumping ground for nuclear waste in the garb of ship-breaking. When its designs were exposed, the corporation abandoned its plan to make such a huge investment of 500 million US dollars in Gadani area. Thus it is the duty of the government to protect the environment disallowing the disposal of toxic waste or nuclear waste on the Baloch Coast.

However, the sanitary environment is deteriorating in all the major townships, cities and human settlements of Balochistan, particularly Quetta, where sanitary workers had stopped cleaning the communities with the outbreak of administrative anarchy. Most of the open drain lines are overflowing in the heart of Quetta city polluting the entire city environment with pollutants. No one is monitoring the job of the civic agencies whether or nor they are working properly or performing their duties.

In addition, most of the gutters on the Prince Road and Zarghoon Road in Quetta are normally overflowing for hours spreading filth everywhere, particularly in the vicinity of the Civil Secretariat, the CM and Governor’s House. On the weekly public holidays, the overflow of gutters and open drain lines start in the morning and continue till the evening polluting the entire atmosphere. On various occasions, the Chief Minister himself censured the civic agencies for spread dirt and filth in the city but with no avail. We hope that the Provincial Chief Secretary will fix the responsibility for overflowing filth and dirt from the open drain lines and sewerage line so that the officials responsible are caught and punished severely for playing with the public health of the people and polluting the entire city.

The District Coordination Officers (DCOs) and other junior officials in other townships of Balochistan should ensure that the sanitary workers are reporting to their duties normally and performing their jobs to keep all the townships of Balochistan clean and environment friendly. There should be a proposal garbage disposal system in Quetta and other smaller townships with the availability of dumper trucks to dispose of filth and dirt in proper manner.