KARACHI, July 21: A total of 20 centres fully equipped to check the vehicles polluting environment would be set up in Karachi by a Malaysian firm at a cost of $500 million.
This was stated by Adviser to the CM on Environment Noman Saigal, while speaking at a seminar on ‘Preventing Environmental Degradation’ here on Friday. The seminar was organised by the Helpline Trust.
The adviser said that transport vehicles were responsible for about 75 per cent of the pollution in Karachi. Lack of resources, including financial and administrative, was the main hurdle in checking spread of pollution, he said, adding he felt that 30 per cent of the health budget should be allocated for improvement of environment.
Mahmood Akhtar Cheema of the IUCN-World Conservation Union, said that there were about 1.5 million vehicles on city roads emitting smoke which happened to be 25 times more than the average vehicular emission in other major cities of developed countries.
He said 40 per cent of urban population faced health problems due to the rising pollution.
Justice (r) Shaiq Usmani said despite various law reforms, like the Pakistan Environmental Protection Council, Environment Protection Orders, etc., nothing better could be seen in respect of environment.
Ronald deSouza of NGO Shehri, Ms Marcia A. Grant, of the Aga Khan University, Ghayasuddin Ahmed, CEO General Trading, and Ms Nargis Alavi, Principal of the Habib Girls Public School, said that air and water pollution levels in Karachi had crossed international environment quality levels. She pointed out that the vast slums, overflowing drains, broken roads, unchecked crime, chaotic traffic and unbearable air and noise pollution had devastated the city’s environment.
The major causes of pollution are dust, industry, burning of solid waste and smoke-emitting vehicles, especially the two-stroke vehicles, diesel trucks, and buses. Use of low quality fuel in such vehicles aggravate the situation further.
Experts were of the view that air pollution through vehicular emission could be contained at different levels by installing pollution control devices and switching over to refined fuel and vehicles with modified design.
They suggested that registration of old buses and two stroke rickshaws and issuance of route permits to smoke-emitting vehicles be banned at the earliest. They called for the introduction of four-stroke rickshaws using CNG.
Karachi needs integrated policies and approach for sustainable environmental development, they said, stressing on enactment of laws and their effective implementation to check further damage to environment in the city.—PPI
