KARACHI: Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab said on Monday that the world needed to work together to support the countries affected by climate change and highlighted the problems of Karachi and suggested potential solutions.

He said this while addressing the Pavilion Mayors Conference held in Dubai, according to a statement issued here on Monday.

The conference is an important event that provides an opportunity for mayors from different cities around the world to share their experiences and make suggestions regarding climate change.

Barrister Wahab shared in detail the problems of Sindh province, especially Karachi, their solutions and resources. He said all possible steps were being taken to provide basic facilities to the citizens in their daily life, and the road network in industrial zones and commercial centres being improved to promote economic activities.

Karachi could establish solar and wind farms with financial cooperation that provided affordable and clean energy to people, he said, adding that due to the increasing population, the problems of Karachi continued to increase and, therefore, it was necessary to develop the basic infrastructure of the city, improve the roads and highways as well as modernise the water supply and drainage system in Karachi, said the mayor.

He said efforts were being made to provide maximum facilities to the citizens through the construction and expansion of storm-water drains, parks and playgrounds.

The mayor highlighted the situation faced by the people of Karachi during the flood of 2022 and the heat wave of 2015 and said that many major cities of the world were facing natural disasters due to climate change while owning to increase in temperature, heat waves were also happening. Therefore, it was time to adopt a strong strategy to deal with these challenges at the global level.

He said that efforts were underway to tackle this challenge through plantation drives in Karachi and the creation of artificial forests to green up as many parts of the city as possible, including a large park on the city beach where afforestation was being done on a large scale. These measures aimed to combat the conditions caused by climate change and to improve the city’s weather conditions, he said and stressed the need to adopt a common strategy to deal with it.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2023