UNITED NATIONS, May 2: Pakistan has called upon the international community to provide its support to developing countries facing serious environmental challenges.
Addressing the 12th session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development here on Sunday, Minister of State os Environment, Local Government and Rural Development Tahir Iqbal said that Pakistan was taking all measures to address issues, including water, sanitation and human settlements.
"We hope these initiatives would go a long way in improving the life of our people," he added. He said these three issues were key challenges faced by developing countries. The three issues, he said, were inter-linked and needed to be addressed in an integrated manner.
The minister for environment said like many other countries, Pakistan was facing an acute water shortage as well as deterioration of water quality. The current estimated deficit was about 15 million acre-foot (MAF) which, over the next 25 years, was projected to increase many folds.
He said that Pakistan may become a water deficient country if the trend was not arrested, adding that 63 per cent of the country's population had access to safe drinking water, while 39 per cent had access to proper sanitation facilities. He said the lack of clean drinking water was leading the water borne diseases to rise.
Tahir Iqbal said the government realized the situation and had taken a number of steps in this regard. These include implementation of watershed projects to reduce silting of reservoirs, formulation of water sector strategy, development of a plan 'Water Visioin-2025,' water quality monitoring in selected cities, construction of water and wastewater treatment plants and expansion of water supply and sanitation coverage.
He said a comprehensive programme to establish a network of water treatment plants in high priority districts was also underway. The Minister said to expand sanitation coverage, the government had taken a number of steps, including construction of filter plants in areas which were dependent on exposed water sources and in districts with a need for water treatment.
He said the provincial governments had also embarked on sanitation acceleration programmes and building up capacities of the lowest tiers of government to deliver the programme as part of a devolution package.
Highlighting the issues in the sector of Human settlement, he said his country is faced with the challenges of urbanization. Out of its around 150 million population, the urban population constitutes about 33%, and is increasing at a rate of 4 per cent per year.
This process of rapid urbanization has resulted in overcrowding of cities and deterioration of environment. It has also taxed the already inadequate civic amenities and services to a considerable extent.
It is estimated that 35-40 per cent of the total urban population are living in informal squatter settlements. Currently, there is a shortage of over 5.4 million housing units alone, with an annual shortfall of 270,000 units every year.
The Minister said the government in Pakistan is fully cognizant of the problem and has adopted various long and short term policy measures including the development of programmes to cope with housing and human settlement issues. -APP