| Abstract | Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA for short), is a formal study procedure to identify the potential
adverse environmental impacts, of a proposed development activity.
EIA, like many developing countries, is a new development in Pakistan. Until 1973, before inclusion of
subject on environment in the constitution, environmental protection was being done through a variety of acts and
regulations inherited by the nation before independence in 1947. The 1973 Constitutional provision resulted in
promulgation of Pakistan Environmental Protection Ordinance (PEPO) in 1983. This Ordinance provided for
establishment of Environmental Protection Agencies (EPAs) in the country.
One of the central subjects of the Ordinance is the requirement of EIA for the projects that are expected to
have adverse impacts on the natural resources of air, water and soil. The Ordinance could not be implemented fully
due to various reasons - major being the lack of political will. An important headway however, under the provision
of the Ordinance, was made by subjecting public projects to EIA by the beginning of nineties.
Later, in 1993, came Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (PEPA). The new legislature, besides
strengthening, also rectified some of the shortcomings and weaknesses of the 1983 Ordinance. The subject of EIA is
still in infancy stage in Pakistan. EPAs are plagued with many problems. Major of these being the lack of authority
and resources to carry out the business effectively. Uphill now there is no list of activities to go under EIA. Subject
of public participation in environmental decision making is totally out of place. Private projects are not obliged to go
under EIA. The legislative framework (PEPO 1983 and PEPA 1993) is lacking in operational definitions.
The present study looks at these aspects of environmental issues by a series of case studies (Environmental
Impact Statements - EISs), produced in Pakistan. Here the EIA process and the procedure has been evaluated with
respect to parameters of local consultation, mitigation measures, alternatives, and time taken for environmental permits.
These evaluations (the process and the procedure) give an insight into the environmental management and
planning currently being practiced in Pakistan.
The study is divided into three sections. First part deals with the general description of the environmental
measures taken by Pakistan. This section also gives an account of the development planning system in the country,
and its integration with environmental management system. Having this framework in the back ground, second part
after general description of the cases, gives an analytical picture.
Major weaknesses in the EIA reports and the administrative process of EIA have been identified. Scrutiny
of reports revealed frailty in alternative consideration, mitigation measures proposed to offset the impacts of the project,
and the local consultation. In most of the cases either no alternatives to the project or the process were given, or the
alternatives rested heavily on engineering and or economic considerations thereby dis-respecting environmental and
social parameters. Mitigation measures, an essential part of an EIS, have also been treated verily. The evaluation on
this part was done with regard to the practicability of the proposed mitigation measures. In some instances it was found
that mitigation measures were proposed without an operational consideration. Local consultation is the weakest part of
environmental decision making in Pakistan. Although the Pakistan Environmental Protection Ordinance 1983, provides
for public involvement, yet this still is a discretion on part of the authority.
The enquiry into EIA process is a mixture of successes and failures. On of the potential strengths of the
system lies in subjecting public initiated projects to environmental considerations. This requires all projects having a
financial outlay of Rs. 20 million (700,000 US $)and above, to submit an EIS, containing a description of the activity,
its impacts on the environment and the measures to minimize these impacts.
The system, however, has not yet been able to operationalise EIA requirement for private development
endeavors. They (the private proponents), approach Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), only if the project is
financed by a donor agency who has set EIA requirement in lending policy.
The EIA system in Pakistan can be regarded as development oriented due to leniency in granting
environmental permits. These permits, some times, are issued after attaching conditions of emissions and/ or effluent
discharge. This laxity however can be dangerous due to truancy in appropriate monitoring and surveillance.
International donor agencies, against private as well as public sector, were found more responsive to environmental
considerations by allowing for time and money set aside for such study. Virtually all EISs prepared by foreign
consultants reveal severe dearth of environmental professionals in the country.
Section III, based on study findings and conclusions in second section, ends with the recommendations on
the various aspects of the EIA system in Pakistan research. |