ISLAMABAD: The government is focused on transforming the overall outlook of cities that will play key economic roles in the future, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam said on Tuesday.

“Marked by the reckless discarding of solid waste, our cities have become hugely polluted and are fast becoming unlivable,” he said, while speaking to the press.

Mr Aslam said Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the Clean Green Pakistan Index (CGPI) in November last year to tackle these urban environmental challenges and provide people with healthy livable conditions.

Says our cities have become hugely polluted, becoming unlivable

The CGPI encouraged competition between cities on various indicators, including public access to drinking water, safe sanitation, effective solid waste management and tree plantation.

The initiative primarily weighs up the environmental character of cities on the basis of 35 indicators. This index will be used as a benchmark for annual budgetary allocations to the provinces from the national exchequer.

Mr Aslam said that in the initial phase of the CGPI, 20 cities from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – including Attock, Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Okara and Bahawalpur – were selected to compete on certain public interest issues.

The cities are being judged on how they have addressed issues such as safe drinking water, solid waste management, liquid waste management, city beautification, cleanliness of streets, the usability of parks, tree plantation, total sanitation and hygiene, and community participation, he added.

He said that the performance of the 20 cities competing has been now measured on the CGPI, and most of them have performed well on all 35 indicators of the CGPI under six different themes.

Giving break-up of the performance score achieved by the cities, he said that according to data collected by the Ministry of Climate Change, Attock city scored highest with 76.53 points among all 13 cities in Punjab, followed by Bahawalpur with 74.8 points, Lahore with 74.3 points, Gujrat with 70.46 points, Rawalpindi with 69.94 points, Sahiwal with 65.88 points, Gujranwala with 64.39 points, Faisalabad with 62.97 points, Multan with 60.63 points, Sialkot with 56.27 points, Sargodha with 56.1 points, D.G. Khan with 53.45 points and Murree with 37.29 points.

In KP, Bannu scored 57.5 points, Kohat scored 52.97 points, Abbottabad 52.72 points, Peshawar 45.39 points, Mardan with 34.17 points, Swat with 30.97 points and D.I. Khan 21.19 points.

He said that Mr Khan also acknowledged the efforts of deputy commissioners of the districts that had cities that showed prominent progress towards keeping their cities clean and green.

While highlighting factors and indicators behind of the performance of the cities, Mr Aslam said that 120, 000 volunteers registered with the PM’s Clean Green Pakistan programme played a vital role in monitoring the role of city administrations. They also played their role in helping these cities improve their performance in managing cities in an environmentally friendly way, he added.

He said that demonstrations of political will, public behavioural change, local government institutions and enhanced public engagement were instrumental for the improvement in the overall environmental and waste management in the 20 competing cities.

He said there are plans to expand the CGPI experience to other cities in Balochistan, Sindh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir

soon, where environmental degradation, particularly air pollution, and the absence of solid waste management facilities pose risks to public health and the environment.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2020

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