ISLAMABAD, Better late than never, the National University of Sciences and Technology (Nust) has submitted a detailed Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report on its massive H-12 campus.

According to sources in the Ministry of Environment, “Nust was pursued for two years before it finally presented an EIA report.”

One of the concerned officials said: “This could have been a green model but it’s like any other routine project. Nust needs to take environmental degeneration seriously.”

What really gives environmentalists nightmares was possible loss of the diverse wildlife. Noise, high traffic volume and construction activities were likely to threaten wildlife in this area, the Nust EIA report highlighted, adding that “There is a high probability that wildlife population in the project area has declined to some extent due to the destruction of habitat and disturbances.”

A total of 18 species of birds, six of small mammals and four of reptiles were confirmed to have ceased to exist. There were no endangered species in the area.

Nonetheless, the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) had called a public hearing on March 10 to assess existing environmental conditions, description of the project, analysis of the impacts and suggested mitigation measures to be implemented during the execution of the proposed project.

This project involves the development of NUST campus, including its head offices and several postgraduate institutes in Sector H-12. For this purpose, the government allocated the entire sector spread across 988 acres for the educational institution.

The ambient air qualities in the surroundings were recorded below the benchmark set by Pak-EPA.

In the project area, Nust had installed eight tubewells to draw water from the subsurface aquifer to meet the water demand for municipal and horticultural use. Pumps on two of these wells could draw 2,000 gallons/hour each while the other two 3,000 gallons/hour. Remaining four tubewells have a discharge of 5,000 gallons/hour.

Tests of samples of ground water indicated no significant variation in any physico-chemical parameters except turbidity and observed below WHO guidelines for drinking water. The report also declared groundwater biologically safe.

According to the Nust EIA report, oil and grease content in the samples were very low from a typical wastewater composition standpoint and, therefore, was not a problem.

Nust emphasised that noise caused by construction machinery and earth moving equipment, including 14 power generators to be installed, was less likely to be felt outside the project area.