Civil society urged to play its due role

Karachi
Sharmila Faruqui has said that Pakistan is facing serious challenges of environmental degradations thus civil society and private organisations should join in government’s efforts to overcome the problems.
Talking to the PPI on Sunday, the Sindh minister for culture and tourism said that approximately less than one-fourth of the country’s population is poor and directly dependent on natural resources for their livelihood like agriculture, hunting, forestry and fisheries.
She maintained that environmental degradation, air and water pollution, ozone layer depletion, deforestation, desertification, vanishing bio diversity, land degradation and natural disasters have resulted in ecological imbalance that badly affect human and their properties.
“To mitigate these losses, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the provincial bodies are working effectively.”
Sharmila said Pakistan is a country of 188 million people with average population density of 236 persons per sq-km which is higher as compared to many other developing countries, adding the country has a very high migration rate to urban centers which has made the cities very congested and made the civic infrastructure inadequate.
On pollution, she said main causes of air pollution are the abrupt increase in the number of vehicles, inefficient automotive technology, use of unclean fuels, uncontrolled emissions from industrial units, burning of garbage and the presence of dust which needs to be overcome. She stressed that hectic planning and efforts along with civil society were required to tackle environment issues as solid waste generation in the country was expected to enhance from 20 million tons year to 27 million tons adding more heaps of garbage and open dumping sites.
About the steps to counter environmental dilapidation, Sharmila said fresh water sources will be categorised and protected against pollution. “All major cities will install sewage treatment plants. The treated water will be used for agriculture and horticulture purposes. Cleaner Production Techniques will be adopted by industries to minimise pollution generation. Federal and provincial governments will ensure that at least 70 industrial wastewater be treated before discharge into water channels. Wastewater discharge limits shall be imposed on industry to conserve water and reduce pollution.”
The minister declared that the Sindh government was making hectic efforts to tackle climate change by initiating various projects and raising awareness among people about it.
The government was taking significant initiatives in collaboration with international agencies to counter complex issues regarding environmental degradation, she concluded.