Many kudos to our President Asif Ali Zardari who lately seems to have developed a great interest in Karachi and its problems. Last month, while in the city, the President approved an ambitious Green Karachi Project worth Rs 22.151 billion.
Earlier, in February the President had given the go-ahead for two other projects the revival of Karachi Circular Railway and the Rapid Bus System involving an expenditure of billions of rupees. It was, however, laudable on the part of Mr Zardari to realise that Karachi needs more parks and gardens and a sustained campaign for massive tree plantation throughout the city to clean up its carbonised and toxic fumes laden air.
Notwithstanding his innovative style of governance and the misgivings about it, President Zardari is not at all naïve when it comes to issues relating to environment. He must have learnt the tricks of the trade while serving as environment minister during the second stint of Benazir Bhutto government in 1990s.
But can Mr Zardari alone be able to realise this dream of Green Karachi? While the President can arrange the flow of money and can make the government machinery move with speed to pursue the task, it is the public at large that must take upon itself the responsibility of preventing the degradation of environment and arresting the ecological imbalance.
Above all, such public welfare projects, at least in the context of Karachi, have a history of falling victim to institutional short-sightedness and rivalries and dying a pre-mature death for want of a commitment among the officials and elected representatives. And where there is such a substantial amount involved, as in the case of Green Karachi Project, everybody starts vying for its control. There is some evidence to suggest such rivalries have already started surfacing even before the Green Karachi Project could take off.
In fact President Zardari held a meeting at Islamabad in early March where this project was initially taken up and approved in principle. Reacting to this decision, the Naib Nazim of the city, Ms Nasreen Jalil, had complained that neither she nor City Nazim Mustafa Kamal was consulted or apprised of the project.
"If the federal government has any programme regarding Green Karachi, it should take us into confidence and we would fully collaborate in this regard", she was reported to have said. In yesteryears Karachi was known as a 'City of Gardens' and when the Britishers left in 1947, Karachi with a much smaller territorial area had so many sprawling parks and gardens, playgrounds and other open spaces.
To mention a few, these were Burnes Garden, Jahangir Park, Empress Market Garden, Zoological Garden, Frere Hall Garden, Gutter Baghicha, Race Course Ground, Polo Ground, Ram Bagh, KGA Ground, etc. While planning and developing the city the Raj officials had remained conscious of the environmental factors and weather pattern of this 'Jewel in the Crown'.
Brick and stone buildings were designed with full consideration for light and ventilation. Different residential quarters and localities were planned with wide air corridors to ensure free passage for the pleasant sea breeze, a blessing denied by nature to many other settlements in the world.
And lo and behold! What we have done to this heritage and tradition. Karachi was allowed to expand horizontally and vertically in utter disregard for all principles of urban town planning. High-rise buildings and plazas and road network with flyovers and bridges has now turned it into a concrete jungle.
Falling prey to the lust of builders and real estate developers, our town-planners have shown little respect for environmental and ecological factors while allowing ill-planned development and haphazard expansion of the city. They ruthlessly allowed, of course illegally, greedy developers to swallow-up whatever open public spaces were available in the city depriving its citizens of parks, playgrounds and recreational spots. Successive governments and the public at large must share the blame for this criminal conduct.
There is a little realisation that the absence of vegetation cover coupled with general indifference to the need for plants and trees has exposed Karachi to a number of ecological and environmental hazards.
In fact, parks and green spaces not only improve the aesthetic and physical quality of a neighbourhood, they provide places for recreation, community interaction, social and cultural exchange. And don't forget that trees and plants are the lungs of a city performing a 24-hour critical job of cleaning the air, enriching the soil and protecting it from erosion, returning oxygen to the atmosphere and providing habitat for wildlife, especially birds.
At present the depleting vegetation cover of Karachi is only seven per cent. If the international standard of one tree per person is followed, then Karachi would need 15 million trees, much more than the Green Karachi Project would provide. Besides there is hardly any awareness about the role played by trees and plants in our day to day life. Trees help prevent soil erosion in many ways.
Their roots hold the soil in place and their fallen leaves help improve soil quality and fertility. They also help us in energy conservation besides containing atmospheric warming. By absorbing sound trees save us from another major contributory factor to urban pollution, ie noise. The trees also help reduce ozone levels in urban areas, thus making atmosphere less warm hence bearable for humans.
Another role played by the trees is to contain and control increasing levels of air and water pollution. According to an estimate, air pollution in Karachi has reached critical limits. It is ever-increasing quantity of gases and chemicals that is adding to pollution.
Vehicular traffic and industries are the real sources of hazardous chemicals and gases which are major pollutants. Already carbon dioxide and its day to day increasing emission in Karachi has become a serious health threat. Since the tress and plants breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen they become providers of clean air for humans and animals.And imagine how barren life would be without birds around you.
How comforting it is to hear chirping sounds of birds in the morning and the cuckoos sitting and singing on mango trees in hot summer afternoons. These are the trees which are natural habitats for all types of birds and therefore, fewer trees mean fewer birds around you.
Let us hope that the Green Karachi Project will revive our dream of an environment-friendly city and will help restore the lost glory of a cleaner, airy Karachi. It is indeed an ambitious project which aims at turning hundreds of acres of waste land in the city into green fields.
The Green Karachi Project includes the development of 12 parks besides a massive tree plantation along 24 major roads of the city. The federal government would provide funds to the tune of Rs 18,416 million for five parks, and the funding of Rs 3,735 million for the remaining seven parks would be arranged by the provincial government.
Under the project the parks to be funded by federal government include, Central Park Karachi costing Rs 3,289 million, Shaheed Benazir Memorial River Valley Park costing Rs 8,695 million, Karachi Night Safari at Thaddo Dam in Gadap town costing Rs 3,998 million, Karachi Animal Park at Karachi Zoological Garden costing Rs 934 million, and the Manghopir Resort at Manghopir Hill costing Rs 1,500 million.
The provincial government will undertake Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park at Boat Basin Clifton costing Rs 877 million, the beautification of the Lyari River costing Rs 988 million, the National Park known as Gutter Baghicha costing Rs 440 million, Hill Park costing Rs 200 million, tree Plantation on major roads costing Rs 980 million, Jehangir Park in Saddar costing Rs 100 million, and Gulshan-e-Jinnah known as Polo Ground costing Rs 150 million.
However, the completion of the Green Karachi Project alone will not bring about the desired results. All the three tiers of the government federal, provincial and local need to do something more in this regard. First of all officials and elected representative must overcome their temptations to convert amenity plots meant for parks and playgrounds into residential schemes and shopping plazas.
Only recently the Sindh High Court in two different cases restrained the City government from converting amenity plots in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and North Karachi. These stay orders were followed by another High Court decision placing a complete ban on cutting of trees and warning that those involved in cutting of would be punished through sentences and fines.
Nothing could be more callous than the elected representatives sitting in the City Council acting beyond their mandate and adopting a resolution early this month to regularise encroachments and residential structures raised on 16 amenity plots in Baldia Town.
And the greatest robbery is being committed in North Nazimabad Town, one of the best planned localities in Pakistan, where a number of pieces of land meant for parks and playgrounds are in the process of being converted into residential colonies and commercial centres.
Therefore, unless we bring about a change in our overall attitudes, develop a sense of respect for laws and a commitment towards a civilised urban behaviour, nothing much will change even after the completion of the Green Karachi Project. Yet, let us wish good luck to the Green Karachi Project and pray and hope that it would soon spread a green carpet all over the city worth at least half of the money allocated for it. And people in this metropolis will be able to breath in cleaner air, living in salubrious neighbourhoods.