Sindh Culture and Tourism Minister Sharmila Farooqui on Sunday asked people to keep environment of their surroundings clean and green so as to ensure healthy life that will ultimately boost socio-economic stability.
"People should plant more and more trees so as to lessen the impact of heat in Karachi. Recently Karachi faced severe heatwave that took many human lives, hence, it is the need of the hour that all people and organisations should ensure mass tree plantation in the city along with government's ongoing tree plantation drive in this regard," she said while talking to PPI.
She said "better environment and healthy life contribute to the improvement of human welfare and economic growth. Sindh government is committed to boosting environment conservation and protection in all sectors of life. Environment cleanliness and conservation starts from home to streets and then other places; therefore, people need to keep their houses and streets clean and green. Sustainable use of resources and environmental concern has become increasingly important for all, and everyone has to play its role in this regard."
Sharmila said events like increased glacier melt, global warming, extreme floods and droughts were already hitting the country and would continue in the future; therefore, it was the need of the hour that people should be aware of all environmental threats, and encouraged government efforts to tackle such threats.
She said that the melting of glaciers due to global warming and carbon soot deposits from trans-boundary pollution sources would threaten water inflows into Indus River System. Overall changes in the weather system might cause decrease in the already scanty forest cover due to rapid change in climatic conditions to allow natural migration of adversely affected plant species. Intrusion of saline water in the Indus delta would also adversely affect coastal agriculture, mangroves and breeding grounds of fish, she added.
The minister said that the provincial government had undertaken several projects and programmes at many levels for environmental conservation and cleanliness. These projects were under implementation with focus on areas of capacity building, clean drinking water, environmental management, biodiversity, air pollution control and watershed management, urban development, restoration of lakes/water bodies, environmental awareness, waste management, wetlands etc.
She said that seasonal tree planting in spring and monsoon was a regular function of provincial forest departments; other concerned federal and provincial departments, non-governmental organisations and general public were also motivated to participate in national tree planting drives.
Referring to a report, she said Pakistan's greenhouse gas emissions were low compared developing countries. The green house gases caused global warming and also left impact on Pakistan. Climate change had raised temperature in Sindh during the last 31 years that affected its agriculture productivity and socio-economic conditions. The average temperature in Badin, Thatta, and Dadu had gone up during the last 31 years. In Badin district, mean maximum temperature during the three decades showed an increasing trend. The rate of increase remained 0.029 degree centigrade per year. The mean minimum temperature also showed an increasing trend, with the increasing rate of 0.028 degree centigrade. However, there was decreasing trend of rainfalls during the past 31 years, she added.
She said the government recognised the importance of environmental concerns and taking strategic adaptation measures at the policy management and operational level to ensure energy security, food security and water security to face the challenges of climate change. In this regard, private sector was also required to play a more active role by making environmental investment, innovations and incorporation of environmental considerations in their operation. Significant initiatives were being taken in collaboration with developed countries to counter the issues of climate change, it was therefore, necessary that developed countries should also honour their climate fund pledges as with inadequate resources, developing countries could not effectively combat the adverse impacts of climate change, Sharmila concluded.
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