LAHORE, Oc19: The federal government is set to sign a five-year agreement with the industrial sector to bind them to take steps to control pollution and treat industrial waste.

This was stated by Federal Environment Minister Barrister Shahida Jamil while talking to reporters after the annual convention of the Pakistan Engineering Council at a local hotel on Saturday.

She said the government would monitor the steps taken by the industrial sector to ensure safer environment every passing day. She said the government was also negotiating with the international donor agencies for the installation of waste treatment plants on a Built, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis. Initially, she said, the plants would be installed in Lahore and Karachi to be run by the city governments.

Barrister Shahida said the government was also negotiating with the manufacturers of two-stroke engines to replace them with four-stroke engines in phases. She said the government was also considering to provide four-stroke engines to rickshaw owners on easy instalments to control pollution. She said the government might ban production of two-stroke engines by early next year. She said the government was also stressing on the promotion of CNG in automobiles. She said she would look into the matter of imposition of export duty and sales tax on CNG kits which had made it costlier for the general consumers.

She said the government had achieved the target to supply lead-free gasoline from Aug 14, some two years earlier than the stipulated period. She said the sulphur content in diesel would also be eliminated in due course of time.

Answering a question, she said the federal government wanted to strengthen environment protection agencies (EPAs) in all the four provinces and at the centre. She said that she did not know that the Environment Protection Department was working instead of the EPA in the Punjab.

Answering another question, she said the federal government had submitted 10 per cent of the environment-related projects received from local NGOs to donor agencies for funding. She said the donor agencies had promised to give $42 million for the projects.

“Currently, we are negotiating with the UNDP to earmark as to how much funds should go to individual projects from those selected from among the 10 per cent projects,” she said.

Earlier, speaking at the PEC convention, Barrister Shahida said the control of pollution and availability of safe drinking water had become top priority of almost all nations in the world.

She said the environment protection had assumed the status of a third pillar in the sustainable development after economic and social developments. She said a large number of agencies, foundations and NGOs from different countries had recently attended the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) to tap resources for their countries. She regretted that there were only a handful of Pakistanis to tap the resources.

She said it was exceedingly important to save the environment because the year 2005 was fixed as a deadline to acquire ISO 14000 certification.

“If we will fail to get certification by the deadline, our exports will be rejected in the international market,” she said.

Barrister Shahida also called for the management of the waste terming it everybody’s responsibility. She said the waste would also assume the shape of a growing industry in future to generate energy.