MALIK Amin Aslam, the adviser to the prime minister on climate change, says 200 million saplings will be planted this monsoon. He says that 37 million saplings will be planted in Sindh alone.

How about planting one million of the 37 million in the dry Malir bed which is 36km-long within Karachi and one kilometre wide.

If we plant trees every 2.5 metres, we can plant one million trees in the Malir river bed alone. Similarly, the dry Lyari river bed, too, can be used for this purpose.

Another idea is to make tree plantation mandatory for all schools. Every school student should plant one tree and water it monthly for 12 months. The student whose trees do well should be recognised. The schools whose students succeed must be recognised too.

In three years we will have two mature forests within the heart of Karachi. Other cities can do the same.

S. Iqbal
Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2020