PESHAWAR, Dec 12: The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has handed over a project aimed at preparing land-use planning framework for the NWFP to the local government and rural development (LG&RD) for execution.

The project has been handed over to the LG&RD due to involvement of district governments and town municipal administrations (TMAs) in implementation of the project, said EPA Director Dr Muhammad Bashir Ahmad while talking to APP.

The director said the NWFP Local Government Ordinance 2001, had made it mandatory for each tehsil municipal council to streamline the physical growth of their respective areas in a well-planned manner to reduce urban and environmental problems such as linear urban spirals on main traffic roads, slums and squatters, non-compatible land uses and distribution etc.

The project, costing Rs30.321 million, was aimed at ensuring sustainable development of natural resources as well as to minimize environmental degradation in the province, said Dr Bashir.

The project is also aimed at developing digital database maps for the entire NWFP at an appropriate scale by using remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS) technologies.

The land-use planning project will cover all the geographical areas of the NWFP and made recommendations for prevention of haphazard and uncoordinated urban development patterns which led to high cost public services delivery.

The EPA director said land use had been a concern of all societies throughout the recorded history and the goal of land-use planning was to serve the need of society.

There is dire need of minimizing the misuse or abuse of land as happening in the urban, rural and hilly areas of the NWFP. The land-use planning could help in preventing incompatible use of adjacent land i.e., site location of a commercial or industrial use in a residential area, he said.

Similarly, it could prevent development on prime agriculture land, flood plains, forest areas, marshes or other areas where ecologically, economically or socially the land development might not be desirable, he maintained.

It could also prevent undesirable sitting of industries causing air and water pollution in a community and protect public from land developers who try to sell land or plot that do not have access to facilities and services.

The absence of adequate land-use planning and supporting legislation in the NWFP was another factor creating multi-facet problems, he said. The project would incorporate various social, economic and environmental aspects of existing land use pattern in the province, said Dr Bashir.