KARACHI, Sep 07 (APP):Federal Minister for Climate Change, Sherry Rehman on Wednesday stressed on all inclusive holistic approach and coordination among all stakeholders to cope with the repercussions of climate change and saving natural eco-system from hazardous impacts of pollution.
She expressed these views while chairing a roundtable session on building a coalition to clean up the Lyari River.
The session was also attended by Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Faisal Subzwari, Chairman Karachi Port Trust (KPT) S.M Tariq Huda, officers from relevant departments and organizations, representatives of WWF-Pakistan, UNICEF, multinational and national companies and public policy experts.
Addressing on the occasion, Sherry Rehman said that climate change was a global issue and individual efforts could not prove helpful so all the relevant government departments and public organizations, international organizations, trade and industrial communities and all other stakeholders have to play a proactive role in a well coordinated manner.
The federal minister said that unprecedented rains and floods have affected one third area of the country and millions of people and proved once again that Pakistan was the most vulnerable to climate change.
The entire country received extremely higher ratio of rains as compared with the annual average rains causing inundation of a vast area, she said and presented example of Pad Eidan town of Naushehro Feroze district of Sindh where over 700 mm rain was recorded in just one day.
She further said that National and Indus Highways, two main highways connecting the South to the Northern parts of the country, were under water while finding suitable places to set up tent cities for displaced population in Sindh has become extremely difficult.
Sherry opined that the monsoons were never like this as weather patterns has drastically changed. The monsoons were considered to be a pleasant season in entire South Asia but now it became a symbol of disaster and destruction, she added.
In Pakistan it was the third consecutive year when mercury rose to record highs to place the country among the hottest places in the world while wild fires phenomenon has also took place in the country, she observed adding that all these calamities were result of climate change.
“We can not stop climate change but we can ensure efforts which were long overdue at our part,” the minister stated saying that though there were certain issues of capacity and resources but every opportunity was important and the same must be utilized to improve the situation.
Minister for climate change appreciated efforts for cleaning up Lyari River and said that rivers of Karachi were on ventilator and Lyari River has become a drain while local industries were dumping waste materials in rivers regardless of laws and rules resulting into destruction of river and marine eco-system.
Detoxifying our rivers for maintaining bio-diversity was essential at the time though it might take many years to clean the rivers, she said and added that broad based partnerships were expected to play a crucial role in ensuring to develop solutions those can be scaled up by use of technology and innovation.
Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Faisal Subzwari speaking at the occasion said that Karachi Port Trust was building a sewerage treatment plant with estimated cost of Rs. 8 billion to save the sea from pollution caused by drainage of industrial, municipal and biological waste.
He said that ministry of maritime affairs was aware of serious implications of pollution on marine life and mangrove forest and it was committed with the cause of preservation of marine ecology.
He vowed to double the profitability of KPT within a year time without hurting the delicate ecology of the Arabian Sea.
Chairman KPT Tariq Huda said that Karachi port connects overall national economy of Pakistan to the world and water security issue is a national security issue and solution to it must neither denied nor delayed.
At the occasion a report on environment issues of Lyari River was also launched which revealed that every month 9,000 tonnes of debris enter into the river almost entirely uncleaned while Lyari harbour area was choked by accumulated debris leaving no space for flow of flood water.