Experts call for safe and pollution-free transport

Karachi
The world’s largest single environmental health risk is air pollution and the broad impact of the air pollution is not only on human health, but also on agriculture and climate and contributes significantly to global warming.
Lungs are more exposed to the environment than any other part of the body, and therefore more susceptible to impact.
Dr Zafar Fatimi, the head of the Environmental Health Sciences division of the Aga Khan University, presented these views on a seminar on Thursday.
He suggested that that public transport regulation and control could contribute to containing the congestion and emission issues.
The seminar was organised by the Pakistan Sustainable Transport Project to raise awareness of the significance of sustainable transport, the adverse impacts of carbon emissions and the issues of mass transit systems in the country.
Panelists on the occasion discussed issues of carbon emission and highlighted opportunities for bringing sustainable transport to urban areas of the country.
The seminar aimed at leveraging the media outreach to create awareness across different segments of society.
“The transport sector in Pakistan has linkages with economic and social development and environmental improvements. All possible measures must be promoted to improve the urban transport activity in Pakistan,” said the country representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Pakistan, Mahmood Akhtar Cheema. He appreciated the involvement of the media in maintaining a positive approach towards the issue of public transport in the country.
Syed Kamran Haider Naqvi, an urban specialist at the IUCN, said the five-year project with a funding of $7.8m was aimed at reducing the growth of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Dr Mir Shabbar Ali, the chairman of the Urban and Infrastructure Department NED University, said the public transport was the safest, cheapest and the most efficient mode of travelling.