Brain eating amoeba’ claims life of 14-year-old in Karachi –

Posted on May 18, 2013 by admin
Naegleria disease

KARACHI - The critically-ill 14-year-old patient of brain eating amoeba died in Liaquat National Hospital (LNH), doctors said on Friday.

In this year’s first case of Naegleria Fowleri, Adeel Hussain a resident of Karachi’s Korangi area was brought to LNH in a semi-conscious condition with high fever on May 10.

Though he was instantly put on ventilators of LNH’s intensive care unit, the child succumbed to the disease late Thursday evening.

The survival rate in this disease is quite low.

According to head of National Institute of Child Health, Dr Jamal Raza, the Naegleria Fowleri is a special organism found in warm water or puddles.

Swimming in public pools, with improper arrangements for chlorination, is considered to be a major reason for contracting the disease.

Dr Raza said that if Naegleria infested water passes through the digestive track after ingestion, it does not inflict as much damage as a nasal transfer would.

The germs travel through the nasal cavity and damage the brain. The age of Naegleria victims has ranged between 4-49 years.

“So far, we can only confirm the disease through medical tests. The symptoms can be high fever, stiffening of neck, and vomiting. It appears three to seven days after the person has been exposed to contaminated water. But apart from that we need to treat the chlorine level in water reservoirs, which is being done, to avoid more incidents,” Dr Raza added.

But most doctors are still clueless about the disease that killed over 10 people in Karachi last year.

According to a report in Dawn, health expert suggested that physicians and clinicians go beyond international research and deduce an indigenous opinion on the issue.

Also, apart from one case, other patients had no history of swimming.

At present, the health department and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation is launching a campaign to generate awareness for people’s protection in the city.

A renowned pediatrician Dr Ghaffar Billo said that science had progressed considerably adding that a cure for the disease would soon be developed along the same line as other diseases previously perceived incurable.

“New challenges will keep on coming in, we only need to have the sensibility to tackle them with better techniques and technology,” he added.

 

Link  http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2013/05/17/city/karachi/brain-eating-amoeba-claims-life-of-14-year-old-in-karachi/

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Simple Environment Policy for PML(N), to start with

Posted on May 13, 2013 by admin

1. Clean all over head and under ground drinking water tanks, and write next cleaning due date on the tanks.

Water test report at the water filtration and treatment plants for users, mandatory,

2. Restrict import ofPlastic Waste and shopping bags stuff.

3. Ensure use on incineartors in Hospital waste disposal

4. Facilitate availability of soap at places of wuzoo in Mosques , Hospitals and Schools

 

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A Template for sustainable development policy in Pakistan, south Asia and Africa

Posted on March 31, 2013 by admin

If we start loud thinking about devolpment planing in Pakistan and south Asia it is proposed to evolve a

1. consensus development policy Continue reading →

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Trash talk: Garbage dump plans lying in the gutter

Posted on March 7, 2013 by admin

CDA records shows that the volume of waste generated within the municipal limits of Islamabad ranges between 750 to 800 tons per day.

ISLAMABAD: It was 2010 when the Capital Development Authority first floated the idea to establish a landfill near Kuri village with a resolve that the civic body would soon identify an appropriate site.

But today, no site has been identified by the city managers, nor do they seem interested in doing so.

“The 2006 to 2008 time frame was an appropriate time for the establishment of facility. Finances were available, while the capital was developing at fast pace in terms of cosmetic development,” said a top official of solid waste management wing wishing not to be named. At present, the civic body management lacks not only resolve, but also the finances, he said.

CDA records based on the Waste Characterization Study for 2006, which was last updated by the Authority in early 2012, shows that the volume of waste generated within the municipal limits of Islamabad ranges between 750 to 800 tons per day with an average of 1.896 kg per house per day to 4.29 kg per house per day with a particular trend of waste generation according to socioeconomic conditions.

The waste generated includes municipal, kitchen, green, domestic waste, commercial, building material and other scrap.

There is substantial variation in the quantum of waste generated from various sectors. Sector G-6 alone generates 82.8 tons of waste per day, while Sectors E-8 produces 1.2 tons per day.

The CDA Sanitation Directorate provides sanitation services within its municipal limits, namely Zone-I, which stretches over an area of 54,958 acres. Zone-I has further been divided in three roughly equal zones to properly administer the areas.

The Rs1 billion project to properly dispose of the capital’s waste turned controversial after local residents and some little-known environmentalists, allegedly on the behest of private land developers, resisted the idea, terming the site as inappropriate for the purpose.

This is despite the fact that the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency has issued a No Objection Certificate to the CDA for the landfill project to be built on 100 acres.

Ever since the resistance efforts, the authority has been dumping city waste at different locations and never bothered to suggest a suitable site for a proper landfill. The CDA dumped waste in Sector G-10 for a while, but shifted to Sector I-12after local residents moved the Islamabad High Court.

“Kuri landfill was designed according to the US EPA standards after conducting through scientific studies and duly considering the technical, social and environmental aspects of the project,” CDA Spokesperson Ramzan Sajid said. He said the authority only dropped the idea after enormous resistance and litigation from locals.

When asked about the identification of a new site for the landfill project, Sajid said the authority was trying to relocate the site, but so far a specific area had not been identified for the purpose.

In the past, the CDA had marked some land near sectors I-15 and I-16, but this idea was also dropped later, he added. He said if the CDA manages to establish such a facility anywhere in Islamabad or outside, it would certainly improve the capital’s environment.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4th, 2013.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/515376/trash-talk-garbage-dump-plans-lying-in-the-gutter/

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Import duty on PET film grade resin reduced

Posted on March 7, 2013 by admin

Source    http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-3-163622-Import-duty-on-PET-film-grade-resin-reduced

KARACHI: The Revenue Division has reduced the customs duty on PET film grade resin from 20 percent to eight percent, making film grade resin having the lowest import duty among all the locally-produced plastic resin, sources said.

The division issued a statutory regulatory order (SRO), reducing the duty in line with the decision taken by former finance minister Hafeez Shaikh based on the recommendations of the National Tariff Commission (NTC) and inter-ministerial committee.

The film grade resin is a plastic resin used for making BOPET packaging film, which in turn is protected by the customs duty of 20 percent.

Both film grade resin and BOPET film are being produced for the first time in Pakistan, the sources said. The basic raw material of PET film grade resin is PTA, which is also produced locally and attracts a customs duty of three percent.

They said that the issue of import duty on PET film grade resin has been contested between the lone producer who has made investment in the plant to produce this plastic resin and a user of this resin.

The producer of resin was demanding a duty of 12.5 percent to support his investment, while the user was demanding a duty of three percent, since a three percent duty was also payable on the raw material of resin vis PTA.

The current decision; however, arrived after a detailed transparent step-wise procedure. Sheikh after the Federal Budget of June 2012, formulated a high-level inter-ministerial committee, comprising the secretaries of industries and finance, chairman of the revenue body and chairman of the NTC under the Commerce Division, the sources said.

At the same time, the NTC was assigned the task to undertake a detailed study and to recommend appropriate tariff structure. At the end of December 2012, the NTC recommended to reduce the import duty on film grade resin from the current 20 percent to eight percent, subject to PTA remaining at three percent.

It also recommended that a 20 percent duty be maintained on BOPET film, the product made from film grade resin, giving sufficient protection to BOPET film. Meanwhile, the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) issued a policy note on the issue based on the fact that the duty on film grade resin and BOPET film duty both being at 20 percent, they said.

On January 31, Sheikh decided that the duty on film grade resin be set at eight percent with the duty on BOPET film at 20 percent.

Now, with the duty on film grade resin is set at eight percent as compared to all other locally-produced plastic resins, film grade resin has the lowest duty, as well as lowest net tariff protection of five percent.

The sources said that the users of the resin, being in food snack and candy businesses, are lobbying to prevent the issue of the SRO by implementing this decision and to somehow allow him to import film grade resin at three percent.

 

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Substandard plastic scrap inundates Pakistani market

Posted on March 7, 2013 by admin

Source .http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-3-163785-Substandard-plastic-scrap-inundates-Pakistani-market

LAHORE: Pakistan has imported over 110,000 tons of plastic scrap in last three years without proper recycling infrastructure and monitoring framework in place, sources said on Wednesday.

There is no regulation questioning why we are lifting all kinds of plastic scrap from world over despite lacking the basic recycling facilities in the country, they added.

According to sources in the Environmental Protection Department, plastic scrap is primarily imported by traders who do not have recycling facilities with traditional setups in populous residential areas such as Shershah Karachi and Shahdara Lahore, exposing millions of people to hazardous plastic waste of virtually all kinds.

As per Pakistan’s import policy order 2009 amended as per a statutory regulatory order 242(1) 2011, plastic scrap is only importable by manufacturers for their own use subject to the condition that they shall furnish to customs authorities a certificate from relevant government agency of the exporting countries that the goods are not hazardous and comply with the provision of the Basel Convention.

Unfortunately, the Import Policy Order is not being implemented in its true spirit.

Further, the definition of manufacturer in existing policy is vague in nature and anyone registered individual with a sales tax number is considered as a manufacturer by custom authorities regardless of whether they have manufacturing and recycling facility to produce finish plastic product from scrap, they said.

As per plastic recycling standards, the waste should be properly sorted, washed, cleaned and palletised before use in end product. However, unfortunately it is not being followed.

Additionally, they added, most of the scrap imported in the country is used in manufacturing of pressure pipes, which are not allowed as per Pakistan Standard 3051/1991 and other international standards such as British Standard 3505/1985, ASTM D-1785 -06 and ISO-4422-1:1996.

This use of scrap in pipe not only poses potential health hazard but is also damaging local plastic industry by pushing substandard product in the market.

Therefore, definition of manufacturer to be elaborated and should include manufacturer of plastic finished product using scrap to produce product as per designated Pakistani and international standards.

Sources informed that the recycling of plastic scrap is carried out in a five step process. Plastic collection is the first step, which is done through roadside collections, special recycling bins and directly from industries that use plastic.

In step two manual, sorting is done in which nails and stones are removed, and the plastic is sorted into three types: PET, HDPE and ‘other’. In the third step, sorted plastic is cut into small pieces ready to be melted down.

Washing is the fourth step, which removes contaminants such as paper labels, dirt and remnants of the product originally contained in the plastic. In the fifth and last step the plastic is then melted down and extruded into small pellets ready for reuse.

They said that a proper recycling facility should have a proper washing and effluent management system to ensure that effluent does not exceed National Environment Quality Standard limits. In addition, residential areas should not be exposed to such effluents.

During the chipping process, dust and fume generated release heavy metals such as lead and antimony, posing hazardous risk such as lead poisoning to those exposed.

During the melting of plastic, hazardous gases such as benzene and other harmful hydrocarbons are released, which are detrimental to human health. Ironically, the workers manning such facilities are not equipped with personnel protective to safeguard their health.

To make things worse, there is no monitoring of gaseous, liquid or solid waste emissions at these facilities or even the realisation of what hazards they entail.

On the other hand, China has imposed strict regulation pertaining to import and treatment of plastic waste.

The country has also instructed local environmental protection agencies to inspect plastic recycling companies and publish list of qualified recyclers, along with those who fail inspections so that government could keep effective control on plastic scrap import and recycling.

Lastly, recyclers are not allowed to operate in residential areas and facilities without ample availability of water are not licensed to operate.

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Ground breaking ceremony of water quality management capacity building centre.

Posted on March 4, 2013 by admin
Waer quality management capacity building Centre , at PCRWR

Water quality management capacity building Centre , at PCRWR. Islamabad

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the Cabinet Division assured the Supreme Court that the water being supplied from Rawal Lake was fit for human consumption.

Posted on February 28, 2013 by admin

ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: What seems like good news for residents of Rawalpindi, the Cabinet Division on Tuesday assured the Supreme Court that the water being supplied from Rawal Lake was fit for human consumption.

The dam is a water source for nearly two million residents of the garrison city.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, after perusing the report, decided to dispose of the case, since no further action was required.

The Supreme Court had taken a suo motu on the contamination in Rawal Dam.

“It has been reported by Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Punjab that drinking water being provided to the inhabitants of Rawalpindi and Cantonment Area is fit for human consumption,” said a joint report submitted before the apex court by Special Secretary of Cabinet Division Shahidullah Baig.

Other signatories of the one-page statement were MD Wasa Rawalpindi Shaukat Mehmood and Director-General Environment Protection Agency Farooq Hameed Sheikh.

The dam was developed before Islamabad was planned and inaugurated in 1960 to supply drinking water to the citizens of Rawalpindi.

Constructed on Korang River in 1960, Rawal Dam is the main source of water for Rawalpindi City and Cantonment areas.

The dam has a catchment area of 275 square km that provides 84,000 acre feet of water.

Four major and 43 small streams contribute in the storage of water in the lake.

On June 5, 2012, the Supreme Court had ordered the federal as well as EPA Punjab to monitor Rawal Lake on a regular basis to ensure that it remained free from contamination and pollution by regularly visiting the dam.

The direction to monitor the water quality was issued after it had been brought to the notice of the apex court at the previous hearings by the Wasa that 25 housing colonies were discharging sewage into the Rawal Dam.

According to the authorities, the housing colonies were: Golf City Bahria Town, Atomic Energy Employees Cooperative Housing Colony, OGDC Housing Colony, Country Residencia Apartments, Godha Gali, Tret Village, Salgran Village, Bidhawa Village, DESTO Lab, Madina Town, Al Noor Colony, Lakhwal Village, Dhoke Jilani, Shahdra Kass Area, PTV Housing Colony, Belgium Town, Margalla View housing Colony, Snober Village, Najaf Colony, Judicial Colony Chattar, Bani Gala Town, Bara Kahu, Bari Imam/Noor Pur Shah, Quaid-i-Azam University and Diplomatic Enclave.

These colonies are located in the jurisdiction of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) Murree.

Later the court ordered the local authorities to launch a campaign to block the dumping of effluents and sewage in the lake.

On Tuesday the Cabinet Secretary stated in the statement that test results of drinking water from the dam verified that the quality of drinking water was fit for human consumption, adding Wasa Rawalpindi had daily checked water quality being supplied to Rawalpindi Cantonment and other areas.

The water was regularly counter checked by Environment Protection Agency, which showed that the water quality was fit for human consumption.

For effective monitoring, the report said, Wasa had been directed to submit water quality report on a weekly basis to the Rawal Lake Monitoring Committee for counter checks.

 Reference/  http://dawn.com/2013/02/27/rawal-lake-water-fit-for-human-consumption/
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Controversial project: Hague court issues partial award on Kishanganga dam

Posted on February 20, 2013 by admin

The Express Tribune

Controversial project: Hague court issues partial award on Kishanganga dam

Published: February 19, 2013

The court’s decision requires Pakistan and India to supply data on flows by June 2013. PHOTO: CREATIVE COMMONS

HAGUE: The International Court of Arbitration (ICA) has issued a partial award on the controversial Kishanganga hydro-electricity project (KHEP) in response to Pakistan’s appeal for ‘interim measures’ against the dam which may inhibit the restoration of the river flow to its natural channel.

ICA gave its decision on two disputes put forward before the court. In the first dispute, the court has allowed India to divert the Kishanganga-Neelum River as it considered the Indian project to be “run-of-the river” plant, meaning they do not require large storage reservoirs or cause major disruption to the flow.

However, the diversion will take place under strict conditions. Furthermore, the court has yet to determine the minimum downstream flow of the dam. The court’s decision requires Pakistan and India to supply data on flows by June 2013 with the final award in the case to be given in December 2013.

According to experts, as India does not know the quantum of water available to it, the Indian decision on the size of the power plant will have to be altered as full requirements will not be available as demanded by them before the court.

This decision went against India’s demand that the entire flows of the Neelum river during six to eight months of the winter season would be diverted into Wullar lake.

The second dispute was on the design and operations of the dam, which Pakistan said were in violation of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT). The court has clearly stated that drawdown flushing below the dead storage level was not permissible and that sediment flushing did not constitute an unforeseen emergency.

The court has also endorsed Pakistan’s strongly held view that the neutral expert’s decision in the Baglihar case was horribly wrong and in total violation of the provisions of the treaty.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19th, 2013.

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MDG Goal 8 , develop a global partnership an important and least attended target

Posted on February 18, 2013 by admin

While thinking of ” Beyond 2015, UN thematic consultation on water // SDGs” we need to review the performance of our MDGS in the decade. MDG goal 8 for developing a global partneship failed  an over all action focus, but here I am making a special mention of target 17 providing for affordable essentail drugs let us call them affordable essential Medicines.

With reference to Pakistan this has two dimensions where we need a serious support from the global parbership.

1. Make the medicines affordable for a nation of which 33 million are living below the poverty line . Unfortunately we are more sick due to poverty , food scarcity illeteracy and thus more in need of medicines , hence an acute need of affordble medicines.

2. Quality standards of these high priced medicines also need to be checked and monitored. Even if we some how manage to buy a medicine we are not sure of its ingredients and efficacy. we need this support in providing affordable medicines according to the label in Pakistan in accordance with the MDG Goal 8 , Taraget 17.

unfortunately nothing was done about this target in the period, though we still have some time to at least start taking care of these unattended goals, which will be identified in these columns .

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