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Environmental degradation in the Multan continues to affect livelihoods and health increasing vulnerability of the poor to natural disasters and costing lacs of rupees annually to national kitty. Around 3.5 million people of Multan district are forced to drink arsenic water, which caused cancer and other fatal diseases.
Urban and rural poor having meagre or no access to basic facilities regarding environmental improvement and usually using fossil fuel as energy resource, are more prone to health hazards and ailments. Surveys carried out in the Southern Punjab Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), Provincial EPAs and Suparco revealed presence of very high levels of suspended particulate matter (SPM) in major cities like Multan, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore (about 6 times higher than the WHO's guidelines).
In rural areas, there is no mechanism for monitoring pollution level the residents are more exposed to dust, smoke etc. Over the decades, environment of the country continued deteriorating costing millions to national kitty and affecting health and hygiene. The World Bank, in its report in 2009 estimated the cost of environmental neglect and degradation around Rs 365 billion annually. Experts consider that 60-70 percent cause of urban air quality degradation is due to vehicles. "Every body least bothers about how much we are losing due to environmental degradation," said Zafar Iqbal District officer EPA.
Almost all major cities have industrial estates where cluster of industries of different types exist and majority of cement, fertiliser, sugar units, power plants and steel furnaces located in the vicinity of towns, cause excessive air pollution. Brick kilns are another source of pollution in many areas.
Use of low-grade coal and old tires in brick kilns generate dense black smoke (soot) and other kind of emissions. Out of 6,634 registered industries in Pakistan, 1,228 are considered to be highly polluting. Presently it is estimated that 54,888 tons of solid waste is generated in Pakistan every day, of which 50 percent remain uncollected.
Since none of the cities has proper waste disposal system, even the waste collected was either dumped in low-lying areas or along the roadsides and set on fire. Burning of solid waste at low temperature not only generate particulate matters like CO, NOx but also produce dioxin, a persistent organic pollutant.
Regarding air pollution, data is generally available about ambient air quality focusing on outdoor air such as concentrations of SOx, NOs, CO, CO2, PM10 and PM 2.5. But, these key air pollutants are reported at selected urban locations only. As indoor air pollution (IAP) has not been recognised as a hazard as yet, data is very sparse or even not available.
In rural areas biomass fuels meet about 86 percent of the total domestic energy requirements as 90 percent of rural and 50 percent of urban population depend on wood and other biomass fuels. Indoor cooking and heating with biomass fuels or coal produces high level of indoor pollutants that is evident from ailment like acute respiratory infections and even lung cancer.
Environmental degradation eventually translates into socio-economic problems retarding development and growth and there is need to address environmental issues through policies and institutional reforms that create the right incentives for administrators to effectively enforce policies and for polluters to comply with regulations.
Director General Pak-EPA Asif Shuja Khan said, the government initiated a number of projects to control pollution but lot more is needed to be done. He described the lack of proper implementation of laws and certain legal bottlenecks as one of the reasons behind continued pollution.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2010

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