Karachi facing serious environmental threats: Altaf Shakoor

KARACHI, April 13 (SABAH): The megacity, Karachi, is not only facing the issues of law and order and bad governance but also grave environmental threats which should be given a serious attention by the government, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor on Sunday.

Altaf Shakoor said one of the main environmental issues of Karachi is a thining tree cover. The megacity badly lack parks and green spaces. The notorious builder mafia of Karachi is occupying parks, playgrounds and open spaces. The megacity has a long coastline where mangrove forests and beach parks could be developed but the provincial and local governments have no such plan in sight. There is also immense scope to develop urban forests along Lyari and Malir rivers but again saving a few announcements the government is not interested in developing urban forestry in Karachi.

Altaf Shakoor said an acute shortage of drinking water is another big issue. People use underground saline water through bore-pumps that is decreasing water table of Karachi which is very grave environmental issue. The government should develop lakes, ponds and dug-wells to harvest rainwater. The use of saline water for bathing and household chores is developing skin diseases and hepatitis in Karachi and specially people living in poor slum areas are facing these diseases. He demanded developing desalination plants in every locality of the megacity to facilitate citizens.

Altaf Shakoor said growing air pollution in Karachi is also one of the major environmental problems. Daily tons of uncollected garbage is burned which causes dangerous smokes. Moreover hundreds of thousands unfit smoke- emitting vehicles in Karachi are polluting it’s air. A large-scale construction of roads, buildings and other structures add small dirt particles to air that cause a very bad air pollution.

The PDP Chairman asked the government to  give a serious focus to the environmental issues of Karachi. It must ensure collection of garbage as the slum areas have already become big garbage heaps. The issue of overflowing gutters should be addressed and the citizens should be provided clean potable water. The air pollution must be controlled at all costs.

He said now the KMC is collecting huge amount of municipal taxes through electricity bills but it’s performance is not satisfactory. He asked the government to improve it’s governance benchmarks and resolve all civic and environmental issues of Karachi on priority.