‘Pakistan has yet to do a lot to achieve SDGs’

Country ranks at 115 out of 149 countries in meeting the goals

We have a long way to go as regards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Pakistan ranks at a 115 out of a total of 149 countries in meeting the goals.

This was stated by urban planner Anam Rafiq while speaking at a seminar on the sustainable development goals (SDGs), which was held at the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) on Thursday afternoon.

Speaking on the topic, “Understanding and Implementing the SDGs: a framework for action”, she said that among the 17 SDGs were no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well being, gender equality, quality education and clean water and sanitation. All 17 goals, she said, were interconnected.

“Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. We should be planning for the future,” said the urban planner.

The targets by 2030, she said, were: access to safe, affordable housing; allowing people to have a say in development; enhance inclusiveness and sustainability; strengthen efforts to protect the world’s cultural and natural heritage; and focus on protecting the poor and those who find themselves amid vulnerable situations.

Sustainable cities, she said, mattered because half the globe’s population, i.e., 3.5 billion people now lived in cities.

Sustainability planner Farhan Anwar spoke on the topic, “A roadmap for implementation”.

He spoke of sustainable development as striking a balance between human beings and resources. This also included resources being replenished, he said.

He said that what was the antithesis to sustainable development was overexploitation of resources, which was currently taking place on account of the phenomenal population growth and rapid urbanisation.

He talked at length about industrialisation, exploitation of resources, birth of the modern city and phenomenal population growth.

“If you’re producing more, you are tapping into nature’s capital,” he said and added that this led to overexploitation and hence dwindling of resources. He said that another crucial factor today was the increasing population.

The increase in population was not necessarily on account of a burgeoning birth rate. It was because, he said, there had been rapid advances in medical science and pharmacology which had resulted in improvement of health and an increase in the average lifespan.

Up until 1850, these improved medical conditions were not there, but after that population began to grow rapidly on account of lesser people dying of old age or disease. “Development should not be at the cost of physical and natural environment,” Anwar said.

He further stated that an overwhelming number of the poor were affected by the heat wave.

This was because they could not afford well-planned housing and lived in houses which were not planned with things like extreme heat in mind. They were just built at random to cater to the bare needs of the poor.

He also stressed the need for clean water, adequate sanitation and gender equality. Sixty percent population of Karachi, he said, were living in slums.

Earlier, Dr Riaz A Shaikh, head, Sustainable Development Research Centre, SZABIST, underlining the need for sustainable development, said 1.2 billion people in Asia were living below the poverty line.

Three hundred million children, he said, were living with stunted brains the world over because of environmental pollution.