Responding to the show-cause notices issued by the Sindh Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), a number of industrialists on Wednesday clarified their position with regard to their failure to meet the safe environmental standards, a source in the agency said. According to the source, owners and executives holding responsible positions in these industries initially urged the authorities concerned to hear them as a group but later they agreed to plead their cases individually when they were informed about the legal requirements under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (Pepa), 1997. Some of the industrialists expressed the view that since they were members of an association of industries, there was no need to discuss the issue of pollution or environmental degradation with them directly. A majority of the industries represented before Sepa Director-General Shakeel A. Hashmi are located in the SITE area. The industries identified for proceedings under the Act so far deal in textile, electrical and mechanical engineering, gas, food processing, spinning & weaving, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, beverages and oil. The notices delivered to industrialists well in advance said that it had been observed that necessary arrangements in accordance with an environmental management system did not exist in the industrial units in question for treatment of industrial effluents and gaseous emissions, or for the prevention of release of particulate matter, as per the National Environmental Quality Standards notified under Pepa, 1997. As such, the industrial units were causing degradation of the environment and natural resources and spreading diseases, which was a punishable offense under Section-17 of the Act, the notices said. A source said that many of the industries admitted having shown carelessness towards environmental and human safety issues but maintained that they alone could not be held responsible for the consequences, adding that the designated industrial areas where they had been operating did not have a system for solid or liquid waste management. Not only the industrial estates but also the provincial and district governments should have taken the issue of environmental concerns and inadequacies of industries into consideration and ensured setting up of collective or common treatment plants, relevant waste management system, etc, the argued. It is learnt that the industries were asked to come up with their industrial plans and explain the measures they had taken or intend to take to contain the pollution caused by their respective units.