The construction of 200 more CNG stations is in progress to raise the total number of the stations to 1,135 to reduce the growing pollution level causing serious health issues in the country, said Economic Survey Report 2005-06 released by the federal government.
The report said that key factors, contributing to the air pollution in Pakistan are rapidly growing energy demand, increasing industrial and domestic demand and a fast growing transport sector. In the cities, widespread use of low quality fuel, combined with a dramatic expansion in the number of vehicles on roads, has led to significant air pollution problems. It said that air pollution in most populated cities is among the highest in the world.
The report said that government is promoting the use of CNG in a big way to reduce the pollution level. Presently, some 935 CNG stations are operational throughout the country, while another 200 are under construction. As of April 2006, the total number of CNG vehicles stood at 950,000 compared to 700,000 vehicles in April 2005, making Pakistan's largest CNG fleet the largest in Asia and the third largest in the world after Argentine and Brazil.
It said that sustainable development is the cornerstone of government policies and the concern for environment, its protection, renewal and enrichment is recognised as an obligation for the betterment of all citizens. The poverty-environment nexus has been of particular interest in the recent years, as poverty in Pakistan, like in many other middle-income countries, plays an important role in increasing the vulnerability of the poor to pollution and environmental degradation.
It said that several policies, plans, programmes and projects have been initiated for environment protection and conservation in the sectoral area of water and air pollution control, land use, forest management, energy efficiency, bio-diversity conservation and waste management, etc.
One of the major achievements the Economic Survey Report said that the outgoing financial year was the formulation of the "National Environmental Policy 2005", which addresses the sectoral issues such as water management & conservation, energy efficiency and renewal, agricultural & livestock, forestry & plantation, bio-diversity and protected areas, climate change, air quality and noise and pollution and waste management.
Water availability in Pakistan continues to decrease both in total amount of water as well as in the per capita water availability. The report said that in 1951, when the population stood at 34 million, per capita availability of water was 5,300 cubic meters, which has now decreased to 1,105 cubic meter, touching water scarcity level of 1,000 cubic meter. With the present growth in population and the low rainfall, the threshold limit of water scarcity ie 1,000 m3 of water per capita per year may reached much early than the year 2010. It said that under Wapda Vision 2025, various initiatives have been planned.
The estimates show that the current water shortage of 9 million acre feet would aggravate to 25 MAF if all planned dams under Vision 2025 are not constructed by 2016. The report said that the government is committed to supply safe drinking water to its people and in this regard has started implementation of a "Clean Drinking Water Initiative" Project 2005, which caters for the installation of 544 water purification plants of 2,000 gallons/hour capacity, one in each Tehsil of Pakistan.
The report said that under the Millennium Development Goals of the forestry sector, Pakistan is committed to increase forest cover from existing 5 percent to 5.7 percent by the year 2011 and to 6 percent by the year 2015. This would imply bringing an additional 1.051 million hectares land area under forest. The government of Pakistan is also implementing a number of policies and programmes in the environment sector. National Environment Action Plan (NEAP) remains the flagship programme of the ministry of environment.
The main objectives of the NEAP are to safeguard public health, promote sustainable livelihood and enhance quality of life for the people of Pakistan. It focuses on clear air, clean water, solid waste management and eco-system management.