EDITORIAL: Full marks to Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman for hitting the ground running, when most other ministers are taking their sweet time to settle in, and nudging climate change to the forefront of the debate in the cabinet.
She’s also the main force behind the National Hazardous Waste Management Policy 2022, which was adopted with consensus. It turns out that it’s not just the management of the country’s own waste that is a very big problem, but also what’s “dumped onto the country”, in the minister’s words, and how countries like Pakistan also “import” a lot of waste that ultimately becomes poison in one form or another.
It’s very encouraging that Pakistan finally has a concrete, well thought-out policy that will cater to all aspects of proper management of hazardous waste at all levels throughout the country in strict compliance with international standards. It also helps overcome the shock that came with the realisation that no administration had bothered too much about it till now; even though waste mismanagement is one of the biggest problems in the country, which is also one of the worst affected in the whole world by climate change.
The previous PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) government made some noise about it — more about climate change than waste management — but it didn’t really move beyond a sudden ban on all plastics, only to take it back in a move that ultimately only benefited spot inspectors that fined shops for keeping plastic bags.
But now that this process has finally taken off, at least in the record books, it’s interesting to see a very finely balanced centre-province partnership model at the heart of it. And nobody needs to be reminded that our history is full of eager ministers forwarding inspiring plans that were forgotten as soon as they were signed upon. So, appreciated as this initiative is, it’s far more important to ensure its implementation. Yet with provinces experiencing political and security traumas of their own, and not getting along between themselves or with the centre, this will no doubt be a very hard nut to crack.
Yet we waste time only at our own peril. The climate minister also explained to the cabinet that in addition to introducing a very large number of deadly toxins into the environment, hazardous waste is also the leading worldwide cause of contamination of soil and groundwater. Since we’re already on course to becoming one of the most water-stressed countries in the world in just a few years, and we’re already reduced to importing a bulk of our wheat from once exporting it, this problem clearly deserves the most severe attention possible.
Perhaps the one important detail that this initiative missed, like every other before it, is a detailed drive to implement basic waste management etiquette at the level of the ordinary household. For, no matter how much exogenous factors contribute to this menace, we manage to do much worse on our own. In fact, we’ve reached the point where the country’s largest and most vibrant city and also its commercial hub, Karachi, once the envy of the world, is now nothing more than one big public garbage dump.
Therefore, just as important as the climate minister’s smart move is also the necessity of erecting an overarching national narrative about something as basic as public welfare and hygiene and proper waste management. Only when we’ve successfully addressed this problem at the micro level will macro plans begin to fall in place. All said, however, this is a very welcome move on the part of the climate ministry because a problem as serious as this deserves all the attention, and redressal that it can get.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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