KARACHI, Sept 13: Speakers at a workshop here on Wednesday urged the government to formulate policies afresh on environment and transport so as to give Karachi an efficient and environment-friendly public transport system.

The workshop on “national urban air quality and integrated transport management” was organized by the IUCN and Clean Air Initiatives for Asian Cities, in collaboration with the EPA, the ADB and the World Bank.

State minister for environment Malik Amin Aslam said mounting ratio of environmental pollution had endangered rapid economic growth as about six per cent of the GDP was being spent on issues caused by environmental pollution which had two to three per cent some time back.

He said a fund of Rs20 billion had been earmarked for a five-year comprehensive plan to upgrade environment while Rs5 billion had been earmarked in the current budget for tackling environmental issues.

“A plan for setting up air control monitoring centres to check pollution level on a daily basis is also in the pipeline.”

Ziaul Islam, Director EPA Pakistan said damages of about US 1.8 billion were suffered by the national economy owing to hazardous air pollutants.

He was of view that phasing out of smoke-emitting vehicles was inevitable and registration of two-stroke rickshaws had already been barred. He said fitness inspection centres for private vehicles besides public transport would be established.Amer Zafar Durrani, senior transport specialist of the World Bank mentioned that urbanization rate had been raised to nine per cent from three per cent in the country while on the other side, share of public transport had been dropped to 47 per cent from above than 50 per cent.

Regarding plights of poor commuters, he said in big cities, like Lahore in 50 per cent cases poor people had to walk instead of using means of transport due shortage of public transport as well as financial problems, while in Karachi the public transport system was not benefiting half of its poor population.

He called for introducing more wide-bodied buses and re-fixing fares to facilitate poor persons.

He felt that integrated links between different modes of transport should be established so that people who had to walk in order to cover distance due to lack of transport facilities could be facilitated.

Fares of transport means, like buses, mass transit trains, should be made reasonable and not beyond reach of middle and low-income classes, he urged.

Paul J Martin from World Bank said Rs112 billion were spent on problems caused by contaminated water, deteriorating sanitation condition and unhygienic commodity articles.

He said according to a SUPARCO report, level of pollutant element PM-10 in major cities of the country was above the WHO warning mark.

“Sources of PM are vehicular emissions, industrial emissions, burning of solid waste and natural dust,” he said, adding that in order to takle this steps of updating of framework included health-based air quality tandards, improving vehicle emissions and fuel quality standards, employing technical expertise for air quality management, to communize information to support clean air should be taken”.

Ms Gylanda Bathan, coordinator of CAI-Asia, said though level of PSP and PM-10 was getting down in Asian cities, it was still above the WHO standards.

She underlined the need for recognising first air pollutants and then review air quality techniques, Euro-II vehicle emission standards and WHO standards.

Shreekant Gupta, Director, National Institute of Urban Affairs, India, said economic growth of Pakistan was about eight per cent while damage owing to environmental degradation to its GDP was about six per cent, which means actual economic growth of the country was just about two per cent and after adding population growth, which was about one to two per cent, the real economic growth becomes nearly zero.

He said urbanization rate in Pakistan was near 35 per cent while in Sindh it was 45 per cent and challenges emerged due to this urbanization were not being addressed.

The speakers demanded formation of comprehensive framework to regulate rationally air pollution and integrated traffic system engaging remedial measurements to make Karachi a green and transport friendly city.

They were unanimous that grievances of civic authorities about insufficient funds were not understandable, but it showed their indifferent attitude regarding resolving genuine issues and plights of citizens and commuters of the country, in general, and Karachi, in particular.—PPI