High population growth, low public awareness': environmental degradation continues

The environmental degradation in Pakistan is continuing due to high population growth rate, low level of public awareness and education, deficiencies in management of natural resources and unplanned urban and industrial expansions.
Talking to Business Recorder, sources said that considering this the Medium Term Development Framework (MTDF) 2005-10 has given priority to the Environment Sector with an outlay of Rs 28.3 billion. This includes a major initiative for provision of clean drinking water to almost the entire population under the Clean Drinking Water for All Project to be completed by December 2007, at an overall cost of Rs 8 billion.
But up till now no such development has taken place. "The MTDF 2005-10 recognised the lack of capacity as a major hurdle in the way of efficient realisation of environmental objectives", sources said. They said that to provide clean drinking water to all is a difficult task for the government.
"It is not a matter of just installing water filtration/purification plants but it also requires proper maintenance and monitoring of these plants", they said. For example, in the federal capital, the government installed a number of filtration plants in various sectors, but unfortunately majority of them are not providing clean drinking water to the residents and are out of order, sources said.
"It is of sad concern that there is no one to monitor the poor condition of the filtration plants", they added. The poor condition of the filtration plants along with contaminated water is directly affecting the health of people living in the capital. "This could be best reflected by the increase in the number of water borne disease in the capital in the recent past", sources said.
They said that to overcome the environmental issues the government should focus on the increase of forest cover. "Desertification has affected about 43 million hectares land, whereas marine environment is severely polluted by discharge of industrial and domestic sewage, about 50 percent population does not have access to adequate sanitation, while only 60 percent of urban solid waste is collected, excessive use of pesticides has adversely affected biomass and agriculture land", sources added.
They said that the energy efficiency needs to be enhanced, with special focus on conservation measures. Besides this the government should take immediate steps to stop the increasing environmental degradation. "This is not the time to just sit and plan projects but to focus more on their proper implementation along with appropriate monitoring", sources maintained.
Sources said that in the beginning of this year the Ministry of Environment declared 2008 as the Year of Sanitation. However, almost half of the year has passed and nothing yet has been done in this regard. "The ministry is only busy in holding meetings with the stakeholders and other concerned departments to plan the campaigns to celebrate the Year of Sanitation. This slow pace clearly depicts that the year will come to an end and nothing will be done", said sources.