Copyright 2001 Inter Press Service
November 01, 2001
By Muddassir Rizvi, Inter Press Service

The environment may not be the hottest issue during the U.S.-led attacks on Pakistan's neighbour Afghanistan (news - web sites), but activists here hope that the recent approval by a U.N. agency of funding for key green schemes would boost efforts to curb the otherwise ignored issue of environmental degradation.

They point to a 42.78 million U.S. dollar agreement between the Ministry of Environment and the United Nations (news - web sites) Development Programme (UNDP), meant to support projects that the country, hobbled by economic woes and foreign debt, did not have much room to pursue.

The funds will go to the government's plans under its National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) -- which for the first time incorporates the nexus between poverty and environmental degradation at the official policy-making level.

Likewise, ''talks are also underway with other donors, and the government mobilising its own resources to reinvigorate work in the environment sector,'' commented Omar Asghar Khan, federal minister for environment and himself a key green leader.

The government is also discussing green grants with Asian Development Bank and the World Bank (news - web sites).

Pakistan's new green action plan has four focus areas -- water conservation, clean air, solid waste management and ecosystem preservation.

"We have for the first time incorporated cross-cutting themes like gender and women participation, better community linkages and poverty reduction in our thinking and make them part of official efforts on the green front,'' commented Asif Shujja Khan, who heads the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) (Pak-EPA).

He said that poverty is both a cause and effect of environmental pollution. ''Environmental degradation also causes poverty for instance in the events of a drought, there is crop and livestock loss that adds to poverty,'' Khan explained.

''The poor people have no choice but to cut forest to survive as they cannot afford gas or have no access to it,'' he added. ''Unless we look into the environment issue in its entirety, our efforts won't bear desirable results.''

The UNDP funding has come at a time when Pakistan is being bestowed with fiscal and aid incentives by developed countries and the international financial institutions for its contribution to the U.S. 'war' against terrorism.

However, officials at the environment ministry said that the UNDP fund has no link to the recent international developments and is aimed solely at helping Pakistan cope with environmental degradation.

According to a recent study by the World Bank, the economic cost of environmental damage in Pakistan is as high as 1.8 billion dollars a year in the shape of health bills, lost human hours, resource base degradation.

The economic costs due to municipal solid and liquid waste amount to 883 million dollars, urban air pollution 369 million dollars, soil in cropland degradation 357 million dollars, rangeland degradation 125 million dollars, deforestation 8 million dollars, and destruction of mangrove forests 15.7 million dollars.

Independent experts say that the environmental degradation has taken an alarming shape mainly due to years of official negligence to place environment at the centre of all policymaking.

''The new UNDP funding is unique in a way as it focuses on areas that have cross-linkages with other sectors that are at the centre of economic policy planning, for example poverty eradication,'' said a researcher at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here.

''This funding will help the much desired synchronisation of green agenda with government's priority economic policy planning areas,'' the expert added.

Other environmentalists point to a list of environmental problems -- drought and flooding due to climate change, water pollution, air pollution, municipal and rural waste disposal, soil degradation, unplanned urbanisation, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, vanishing wildlife and the global market thrust of linking environment with trade.

''The country is on the verge of water scarcity. In 1951, per capita water availability was 5,300 cubic metres, which decreased to 1,200 cubic metres in 2000, a decrease of more than 400 percent. The other area is the non-availability of clean drinking water,'' said water rights activist Mohammad Jehangir, referring to the recent drought that rendered more than 3.3 million people homeless and millions of cattle dead.

The environment ministry says that water conversation is now its top priority. ''There are only few places in the country where one can claim that clean drinking water is being supplied,'' environmental officials say.

Thus, the ministry will focus on availability of clean water for drinking purposes and also management of water resources for continuous availability for irrigation and agricultural purposes.

But EPA also wants to focus on areas it sees as a direct threat to people's health. It says that the importation of industrial chemicals including formic acid, phenols, isocyanides, mercury, inks/dyes and arsenic has registered a 400 percent increase over the last 10 years.

''The industrial pollution levels are tremendously higher than the prescribed levels in the National Environmental Quality Standards,'' said EPA chief Khan.

He is also concerned over the rising levels of air pollution in urban areas. ''The major source of urban air pollution in the country is the ever-increasing number of vehicles and the availability of dirty fuels,'' he said.

According to a study by IUCN, gasoline available in the market contains 0.35 g/l of lead as compared to 0-0.15 g/l in other countries of the region. Similarly, sulphur in diesel is 1 percent as compared to 0.05-0.5 percent in other countries of the region and sulphur in furnace oil is 3 percent as compared to 0.5-1 percent in other countries of the region.

A study by the Pakistan Medical Association has showed dangerous levels of lead in blood samples of traffic police, children and adults in Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar cities.

''Our air pollution levels are six times higher than the permissible levels defined by the United Nations. We need to ensure the availability of clean fuelsàwe are already in touch with the relevant government departments and the industry,'' said the EPA chief.

The other major cause of concern for EPA is soil degradation as a result of the growing use of chemical fertiliser and pesticides, which pollutes water resources.

Solid waste management and its disposal is also a neglected area. Now, the local governments will be given key roles in this task, developing environment-friendly methods like landfills to dispose of solid waste. ''At the moment civic bodies collect only 50 percent of waste as they have very little capacity,'' said Khan. Error: Unable to read footer file.