KARACHI: Admitting the government’s failure in implementing environmental laws, Secretary Environment, Climate Change and Coastal Development Baqaullah Unnar said that the situation was alarming in Sindh as contamination of food and environmental pollution was on the rise.

He was the chief guest at a seminar held on Monday, organised by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa), to mark World Environment Day.

This year’s theme is ‘Connecting people to nature’.

“The Sindh environmental protection laws passed in 2014 have remained ineffective so far. These laws couldn’t be implemented due to lack of political will and bureaucratic hurdles. These are ground realities,” said Mr Unnar, expressing hope that the media and civil society could guide the government in improving environmental conditions.

Highlighting the environmental and health challenges, Mr Unnar said that malpractices in the agriculture, food and water sectors had exposed people to toxic chemicals and created serious public health issues.

“(Unregulated) use of pesticides in agriculture is common while we also see farmers growing vegetables with sewage. In urban areas, air pollution has increased dramatically, harming life of common citizens,” he said.

Earlier, other speakers underscored the need for bringing human lifestyle closer to nature.

“It’s time to value our natural resources; we should visit our wetlands and forests and create awareness in this regard,” said Sepa official Waqar Husain Phulpoto in his brief speech.

His remarks on forests led someone in the audience to quip, “Have you left any forests in Sindh?” 

Prof Mohammad Ahsan Siddiqui, a senior environmental consultant and water technologist, focused on how humans had destroyed nature’s balance and created problems for themselves. In this context, he gave the example of the Indus delta which, he pointed out, had been greatly impacted due to reduced flow of freshwater.

“Hundreds of acres of highly fertile agricultural land in Badin have been destroyed and the delta, which was once home to the best shrimps in the world, is no longer rich in these species,” he told the audience.

‘Don’t eat chicken’

Sharing research findings, Prof Siddiqui said that chicken meat being sold in the market these days contained high concentration of toxic metals and shouldn’t be consumed. According to him, the feed and the unnatural methods used to increase the chicken’s weight made the meat unsafe for human consumption. 

“People should think of ways of raising chickens in their homes. Efforts should also be made to grind spices at home instead of buying them from the market in powdered form as they are filled with food products containing high concentration of toxic metals,” he said.

Dr Moazzam Ali Khan of Karachi University’s Institute of Environmental Studies said that small steps in the right direction mattered a lot when it came to protecting nature and the environment. “Being eco-friendly is all about changing the way we live and making the choices that don’t result in harming nature,” he said. He concluded that it’s one earth, one world and one life and, hence, it must not be wasted.

Ali Dehalvi of World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan and Prof M.A.K. Lodhi from the Texas Tech University, USA also spoke.

The programme concluded with distribution of shields among speakers.

Meanwhile, the International Union for Conservation of Nature-Pakistan (IUCN) in a message called upon both federal and provincial governments to respond to global opportunities and link up with them.

“This includes primarily the Bonn Challenge, which is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030,” a press release states.

It also urged the government to integrate environmental concerns in development projects. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), it said, was emerging as a great economic opportunity for the country and IUCN Pakistan and IUCN China were working closely together to assist both the governments to incorporate environmental safeguards into CPEC.

On this year’s theme of World Environment Day, the IUCN stated: “There are numerous studies that confirm the significance of the important link between humans and nature — that people closely connected to nature possess more positivity and vitality compared to those away from nature’s serenity.

“Nature not only serves to provide nourishment to souls but also fulfils our countless basic needs, by way of its ecosystems and rich biodiversity. Thus, protection and conservation of biodiversity requires serious thought and consideration.”

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2017