January 27, 2006	Friday	Zilhaj 26, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 26: The federal government has not released a single penny during the last two years for the ongoing environmental projects in Sindh.

This was stated by the Sindh Adviser on Environment and Alternate Energy, Noman Saigol, while speaking at a seminar on ‘Combating desertification in Pakistan’ organized by the Pakistan Press Foundation at its media library on Thursday.

The seminar was organized in connection with “2006-International Year of Deserts and Desertification” as declared by the UN General Assembly.

The federal authorities just keep on promising that the funds would soon be transferred to Sindh the adviser added saying that there was no shortage of funds but the actual problem was the delay in releasing the funds resulting in the lapse of funds.

Mr Saigol said that the environment department had also proposed appointment of 200 inspectors for carrying out inspections and to check the violation of environmental laws but the sanction had been given only for ten inspectors.

On environmental degradation and desertification, the advisor said that unfortunately there was no proper implementation of laws and viewed that even the government departments were involved in cutting of trees. In this regard he cited the example of KESC and certain other departments.

He lamented that the parks department in Karachi, which was responsible for developing parks, gardens and green belts in the city, had also been involved in cutting the trees.

Mr Saigol also alleged that the landlords were responsible for the destruction of forests in the interior of the province that had caused deforestation. He also held the foreign oil companies operating in the interior of Sindh, responsible for deforestation.

Mr Saigol stressed on creating awareness among the masses regarding importance of trees and told that under the law a fine of Rs3,000 could be imposed for cutting a tree.

Talking about destruction of mangroves forests in the coastal areas of Sindh, he said it had been done by the government organizations in the name of development and alleged that certain influential persons of the area were also involved in the destruction of mangroves.

The adviser said that the federal government had recently enacted a law according to which NOC for any project could only be given after the Environmental Impact Assessment.

Emphasizing on undertaking massive plantation in Thar, Kohistan and other arid areas of Sindh to arrest desertification, he suggested that the private sector should be involved allocating them land for forestation on BOT basis.

Earlier, Tanvir Arif, CEO, Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment SCOPE, stressed on taking immediate steps for arresting desertification in Thar, Kachho and Kohistan areas of Sindh.

According to him, 47 per cent of the globe was dry land while in Pakistan it was 70 per cent and two third population of the country depended on dry land.

He added that 2.8 million hectares land in Pakistan had been affected by water logging and salinity while 5.7 million hectares affected by salts.

Mr Arif said that poor irrigation and drainage practices, water scarcity, overgrazing, flash floods, climatic conditions, population pressure, deforestation and poverty were the main cause of desertification.

Dr Mirza Arshad Ali Beg, president, Pakistan Environmental Assessment Association, viewed that the desertification was the outcome of global warming, scarcity of water at some places and abundance of water or unnecessary use of water in huge quantity.

PFF Director Samina Ishaque also spoke.—PPI