The Greek firm of architects - Doxiadis Associates - designed the master plan of the Federal Capital to provide a healthy climate, pollution-free atmosphere, lush green areas to the residents but the greenery of the city is continuously eroding due to chopping of trees for executing different projects or converting of green belts into parking areas by the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
"The city of Islamabad was built in 1960. Under the plan, each sector would have its own shopping area and park. The designers of the master plan divided the city into eight basic zones: administrative, diplomatic enclave, residential areas, education, industrial sectors, commercial, rural and green areas", an official source said. He said that CDA developed parks and constructed roads in the city but failed to preserve the greenery as a large number of trees were chopped for executing development projects like construction of roads, flyovers and interchanges.
The official argued that if the relevant directorates of the CDA had discharged their responsibilities and implemented environmental laws the current situation would not have occurred. He accused CDA's Environment Wing of negligence and added that citizens openly use greenbelt for car parking while builders, mostly in residential areas dump building material there. Similarly, the Environment Directorate has failed to plant trees in the open spaces of different development projects for which the CDA had chopped thousands of trees, he added.
In the greenbelts, trees are dying rapidly which would also badly affect the city environment in future as the population of the city is growing as well as vehicular movement is increasing with each passing day, resulting in more noise, dust, smoke and all kinds of pollutions, he added.
He said that the civic body in 2008 launched a three-year-long Green and Clean Islamabad project, aimed at raising awareness among the general public on environmental issues and to counter the impression that the CDA chopped thousands of trees in the past for execution of various projects. But the CDA Environment Wing failed to implement the plan despite spending huge funds.
Every year the CDA conducts two-day long tree plantation campaign but due to lack of an effective mechanism of monitoring the newly-planted trees most of the new trees die within days after their plantation, the official revealed. In a report submitted to the Special Committee on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Ministry of Climate Change accused Capital Development Authority (CDA) of issuing building no objection certificates to (NOCs) on protected areas in violation of rules and regulations.
As per section 12 of Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (PEPA) 1997, "No proponent can start any developmental activity until issuance of Environmental approval from the responsible Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The report further states that "in Islamabad, violations are taking place and in most of the cases, the proponents do not have NoCs from CDA".
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