Call for wastewater recycling to increase tree cover

Wastewater recycling systems should immediately be introduced in Karachi to increase green cover without further depleting water resources for residents of the city.

This was one of the unanimous demands by the speakers who spoke at a moot titled ‘Climate Change and our responsibilities’ at the Arts Council. The National Forum for Health and Environment (NFEH) in collaboration with Arts Council organised the programme to mark World Environment Day.

The speakers, including concerned environmentalists, were of the view that household wastewater could easily be recycled for its use to increase tree cover in the city. Besides wastewater recycling for tree plantation, the city should have a proper mass transit system for catering to the daily commuting needs of Karachiites with minimal harm to the environment.

They lamented that a proper mass transit system should have been built in Karachi after its population had exceeded three million, but the facility was still missing despite the fact that the provincial capital would soon be home to about 30 million people.

Environmentalist Saquib Ejaz Hussain stressed that work should be accelerated to complete the network of bus rapid transit systems in Karachi as it was the first-ever modern mass transit system to control harmful vehicular emissions. He said the wastewater from kitchens and bathrooms of houses in Karachi should be recycled.

Senior journalist Afia Salam said Pakistan had ranked fifth on the global vulnerability index of the countries most affected by climate change. She said the government should wake up to the situation of rising mercury levels in the urban areas, adding that measures to tackle recurring heat waves should not just be confined to setting up roadside stalls of cold water, a long-term and effective strategy should be adopted to combat the issue of climate change.

Shabina Faraz, who extensively writes on environmental issues, said that the mass transit system should be introduced in Karachi without any further delay. She said the mass transit system would not just decrease the load of vehicles on the roads of the city but it would also let hundreds of thousands of girls and women safely commute daily for their educational and job requirements.

She said extreme weather in Thar had been a contributing factor to an alarming increase in suicides in the desert area of Sindh and high mercury levels were the reasons behind frequent incidents of domestic violence. She said people in Thar had to bear economic losses as climate change didn’t allow farming in the most backward area of Sindh.

Dr Raza Gardezi, general secretary of Citizens for the Environment, said good personal habits like proper disposal of trash without throwing it away would contribute a lot towards the improvement of the environment.

Former MPA Mehtab Akbar Rashdi told the audience that she had served as the director general of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency for six years and later as environment secretary when the bureaucracy had the firm impression that such postings for a civil servant were of no use. Rashdi recalled that with the help of the then director of schools, late Anwaar Ahmed Zai, she had established 700 environmental clubs comprising school students in Karachi. She said those environmental clubs used to frequently hold activities to highlight the importance of good practices like energy and water conservation and tree plantation. She said that strict penal action should be taken against erring industries responsible for spreading pollution.

Karachi Administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab, who was the chief guest on the occasion, assured the delegation that the Karachi’s municipality would try its best to implement all the recommendations of the moot to improve the environment of the city. He lamented that graveyards in Karachi had ample green cover but there was a lesser number of trees for the living people in the city.

Wahab said the coming generations should know the importance of planting trees. He told the audience that he had planted a tree in his house each time his son and daughter were born and the trees were now as old as his children, advising the citizens to adopt the same practice to play their part in improving the environment.

NFEH President Naeem Qureshi and Secretary General Ruqiya Naeem also spoke on the occasion and reiterated the resolve of their non-governmental organisation to hold more such programmes to raise awareness about pressing environmental issues.