THE CHINA-Pakistan Economic Corridor is about 3,000km-long. This converts to about 30m feet in length if we add both sides and the median to it.

Planting trees on sides and medians should be made part of the contract and all successful contractors should be asked to plant trees 20-foot apart.

If we do that, we can plant one million trees easily. These trees will prevent soil erosion and strengthen embankments.

Roads surfaces are ideal catchment for rainwater. People in Thar use roads for harvesting their rainwater. We can do that too. The water thus gathered can be diverted to the trees we plant.

May I suggest we plant fruit trees only. The CPEC will bear fruits for Pakistan and China. Planting fruit-bearing trees and watering them with water harvested from rain would set a new trend. This model can be replicated for all roads in Pakistan.

Native trees like apples, apricots, walnuts and figs should be selected for Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Apples, apricots, walnuts and dates should be planted in Balochistan. Mangoes, jambolan, dates and coconuts for Punjab and Sindh.

The fruits can be harvested, packed and exported to China, as well as to the rest of the world using the same road.

S. Nayyar Iqbal Raza
Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2016