SC seeks EPA report on 900 stone-crushing plants in KP

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) has sought detailed report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) regarding its environmental compliance and safe distance of stone-crushing plants operating in the province.

A three-member SC bench, headed by Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, issued written order in the hearing conducted on July 11, 2024.

The court had heard the petition, filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, challenging the vires of Rule 2(c) and Schedule-IV of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Power CP-4/2021 etc., crushers (Installation, Operation and Regulations) Rules, 2020 to the extent they are ultra vires Sections 7 and 19 of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Power Crushers (Installation, Operation and Regulations) Act, 2020 as well as the fundamental rights i.e., Articles 9, 23, 24, and 25 of the Constitution.

“In case the EPA finds that the said plants do not meet the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) or the safe distance requirement under the Rules, the EPA is free to take action against the said plants in accordance with the law,” says the 9-page written order authored by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.

It was pointed out that there are 900 other stone-crushing plants operating in KP province. The court directed the Provincial EPA to carry out detailed report regarding their environmental compliance and safe distance and submit their detailed report in this regard to it before the next date of hearing. The court directed for re-listing these matters in the first week of November for the report of the provincial governments regarding the updating/revision of the NEQS as well as the report on the environmental status of the 900 stone-crushing plants.

The court further directed that the copy of the order should be dispatched to all chief secretaries of the four provinces and the chief commissioner, ICT for compliance regarding updating/revision of the NEQS.

During the course of hearing the case in 2021, it was discovered that the core issue behind the challenge to the vires of the Rules was air pollution in the area due to the unlawful operations of stone power crushers in the village Suraj Galli, tehsil Khanpur, district Haripur. Therefore, the environmental degradation through air pollution was at the heart of the case and formed the context for challenging the vires of the said Rules, said the order.

“It is for this reason that vide Order dated 15-6-2021, the report prepared by Hagler Baily Pakistan (HBP) as a local commission (in CA. 844-846/2020, a connected matter) was directed to be put up in this case which is before us today as C.M.A. 4707/2020,” added the order. The court noted in its order that it was pointed out that the power crushers installed in the said village were causing air pollution in the area which raises serious threat to human life and health.

The HBP report, after inspecting the area, formulated the following conclusions: “Regulatory Compliance: High PM concentrations resulting from mining and crushing activities were measured at all the monitoring locations.

“The measured PM concentrations were not in compliance with the NEQS (24-hour) limits. Long term exposure to such high concentrations of PM10 can cause several health effects ranging from coughing, asthma to high blood pressure, cardiac diseases among the residents as well as the staff of the stone crushing plants. PM10 is also known to affect animals by causing various respiratory problems and creating additional stress,” says the order.

The court noted that air pollution causes an estimated one in every nine deaths worldwide, making it the greatest environmental threat to human health.

“According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), air pollution is responsible for an estimated seven million premature deaths worldwide every year,” says the written order, adding that almost all air breathed by humans exceeds the WHO guidelines limits.

The court noted that no other location on the planet illustrates the stubborn nature of air pollution challenge more than South Asia, where pollution continued its upward trend in 2021. Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan – where 22.9 per cent of the global population lives – are the top four most polluted countries in the world.

“As per the World Air Quality Report (2023), Pakistan is the second most polluted country in the world with an annual average PM2.5 concentration 14 times above the WHO guidelines, leading to a loss in life expectancy of 4.4 years,” said the order.

The court noted that the most serious issue of air quality in Pakistan is the presence of excessive suspended PM present in the air adding that the PM is not a single pollutant, but rather is a complex mixture of solids and aerosols composed of small droplets of liquid, dry solid fragments, and solid cores with liquid coatings.

“A number of adverse health effects have been associated with both PM2.5 and PM10 including the worsening of respiratory diseases such as asthma, lung cancer and premature deaths in extreme circumstances,” says the written order. The court noted that the triple-planetary crisis, which comprises of interrelated urgent crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and widespread pollution must entrench environmental concerns as supreme constitutional norms.

“The submissions of the counsel for the respondent power crushers are not satisfactory and the findings of the Report have gone unrebutted, in particular, the violation of the NEQS,” adds the written order. The court noted down in its order that learned Advocate General KPK supported the report of the commission and also urged the court to shut down these plants unless they comply with the NEQS.

In order to protect the human life and health of the residents of the area, who have been subjected to these plants for a number of years, we direct the EPA KPK to shut down and seal the operations of these stone crushing plants immediately, says the order.

The court declared that respondent owners of the said plants can be allowed to re-operationalise their plants provided they make an appropriate application to this court satisfying the Court that they now comply with the requirements of the NEQS, which the Court, after verifying this fact through a technical expert may allow.

The court directed that local police should render full assistance to the EPA to carry out its order in shutting down the stone-crushing plants immediately with further direction that copy of its order must also be dispatched to the Inspector General of Police KPK for immediate compliance. The court noted that the NEQS were passed in 1993 and last updated in the year 2010 and the federal and provincial governments have made no efforts to update the said standards.

It is crucial to highlight that by limiting both the quality and quantity of anthropogenic pollutants in the environment, the NEQS serve as crucial frameworks which facilitate the transition towards a sustainable future, the court noted adding that these standards do not only ensure the preservation of ecosystems and protection of public health through preventive measures but also play a significant role in fostering climate resilient development mechanisms by encouraging sustainable production processes in industries. The court directed the federal government as well as the provincial governments to update the NEQS within a period of three months from today and submit their updated/revised NEQS before it.