'Environmental challenges in major cities become serious problem'

Several environmental challenges and air, noise and water pollution in some major cities of Pakistan have become a serious problem for the country, senior environmental specialists of the World Bank told Business Recorder here on Thursday.
According to their estimates, the environmental degradation costs nearly 5 percent of the GDP annually. The specialists from Washington attended the strategic country environmental assessment seminar here on Thursday, organised jointly by the Government of Pakistan and the World Bank.
The leader of the team Paul Martin, who deals with the South Asian region, said that the World Bank could provide expertise and latest equipment to identify the sources of air, noise, water and environmental pollution in big cities.
He said primarily it was the responsibility of the people, the city governments and the provincial governments to resolve these problems.
Addressing the seminar, Minister of State for Environment Malice Main Salaam said that the present government was dealing with the problem of environment as a challenge. He said the federal government has asked the provincial governments to send their environment improvement projects for provision of funds.
Experts attending the seminar told Business Recorder that rapid population growth, intensification of agricultural production and expansion in urbanisation and industrial production have put enormous strain on the country's natural resources and significantly increased pollution with adverse impact on people's health.
They estimated that exposure to waterborne diseases, indoor and outdoor air pollution and toxic ago-industrial chemicals account for about 20 percent of the country's total diseases.
They said that the challenges of water management and drainage have contributed to waterlogging and salinity of agricultural lands. Today close to 40 percent of Pakistan's irrigated land is waterlogged, and about 14 percent is saline. At the same time, water availability has declined significantly and Pakistan is projected to be one of the 17 countries that will face severe water scarcity by 2025.
They cautioned that about 80 percent of Pakistan's range lands are estimated to be degraded. The damage is more severe - even irreversible - in Balochistan. In addition, deforestation rates averaged 3 percent per annum during the 80's, three times the rate in other South Asian countries.
According to their conservative estimates, the annual costs of environmental degradation (which are not reflected in national accounts) amount to about to 5 percent of the GDP, enough to offset much of the country's economic growth.