Looking to LGs for Normality

Experts insist that only the LGs can prioritise measures to improve the lives of citizens amid growing pollution

LAHORE: With Lahore once again earning the dubious distinction of being declared as the most polluted city in the world, the experts insist that only the local governments can prioritise measures to improve the lives of the citizens amid growing pollution.

The Center for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) recently organised a provincial conference of stakeholders on the role of local government in dealing with the debilitating state of environment.

Ahmad Iqbal, son of Ahsan Iqbal and former Chairman of District Council Narowal, said that various disease have begun to spread rapidly in the city due to smog while the winter season has become a torturous period for the Lahoriites to cope with, which is extremely unfortunate.

“The ongoing environmental catastrophe is too dangerous for humans to ignore it. Due to severe pollution, the life of every newborn child is feared to have been reduced by 10 years,” he disclosed. “The time has come to enforce a climate emergency in the country.”

The speakers observed that vehicle owners are the major culprits in polluting the air, while large housing societies like the DHAs are also greatly responsible for it.

“The poor have nothing to contribute to this pollution but they are the worst affected, indeed, and remain the most vulnerable segment of the society,” said Ahmad.  “The rich can easily relocate for weeks and months to avoid the growing pollution, but where would the poor go?

“No masks or basic healthcare facilities are available for the poor to deal with the hazardous environment. Without banning the real estate mafia and the construction mafia nothing would ever improve.

Ahmad warned that the situation would become even worse in the next ten years.

In developed countries, even rich people live in apartments and walk long distances and stay healthy. But here we need cars for even very short distances.

“A new concept of a 15-minute city is emerging fast in the developed countries where everything would be only 15 minutes outside the cities’ location including schools, hospitals, offices, playgrounds etc,” he said and lamented that the concept of well-planned cities continued to allude us in the Third World.

Around the world, the local government and the city government have merged. Cities are a major source of pollution. Urban planning, as per modern requirements, is a must.

“Our issues wouldn’t be solved only through local government but we as a nation would need to do more, he asserted.

The Secretary of the local government Mobashar Hussain said that there was no smog in Lahore or Punjab until 2016, so where did it come from? These factors were always there but why smog now? Has the boiling point crossed as far as the environment is concerned?

Mobashar further said that it would take years to get rid of smog from hereon. “In the name of developing the city, the construction firms and the mafia have turned the entire city into a concrete jungle,” he said. “We all are responsible. The number of patients increases during the smog season. Besides, child stunting is being witnessed due to smog. Vitamin C is not available for people which increases the chances of illness. Flora & fauna have also been destroyed but we have resisted in strengthening our local governments just because the ruling elite are too selfish

Intelligentsia is also responsible for this. Effective local government is needed. We are ready to hold local government elections and whenever Election Commission asked us we will extend our services, the secretary held. He said that due to smog, a major chunk of financial resources is being diverted to the health sector during the winter season.

“The role of local government in dealing with environmental issues faced by big cities like Lahore can’t be ignored. No province has a local government in place at the moment. In the three martial laws since 1947, half of the political leadership was put in jail and the remaining half was put under the DC, he commented. It’s a democracy of 1500 people.

In the US, during every election, five to six lakh representatives are chosen. There they involve people in decision-making and planning. But in Pakistan, a few powerful people are taking turns to rule the country and have scant regard for the welfare of the people,”he regretted.

“There is not a single village with the facility of clean drinking water. The entire waste is being put at the open sites which is a significant component of the injurious methane gas. All stakeholders must end their differences and the political parties should come to the real issues instead of fighting for the throne.

Talking about education, Mobashar suggested that the schools should come under the local government. “Unfortunately, the schools have become a major place of harassment now. Even the poor abhor going to public sector schools and hospitals. We have to design the future chart as per our needs. Only the local governments can solve these issues. The system would run only through local governments.”

Talking about the federal government, he said, a major chunk of expenditures incurred upon purchase of guns, paying debts, cars of baboos whereas all the expenditures of local government are always on its people. “We need city managers, city planners.”

Climate studies expert Zubair Faisal Abbassi commenting on the situation at hand, said, “Pakistan’s contribution in greenhouse gas emissions, a major cause of climate change, is only 0.8% of the world’s total, he noted. But unfortunately, it ranks eighth on the vulnerability list of the adverse impacts of climate change.

“The recent floods have hit a population of over 31 million people, a population equal to a country as larger as Afghanistan.  According to few studies, the threat is still looming and will turn harsher in the future. An increase in the number of people affected by flooding is projected, with a likely increase of around five million people exposed to extreme river floods by 2035–2044, and a potential increase of around one million annually exposed to coastal flooding by 2070–2100.”

“Projections suggest yield declines in many key food and cash crops, including cotton, wheat, sugarcane, maize, and rice. Temperature increases are likely to place strain on urban dwellers and outdoor laborers, with increased risk of heat-related sickness and death likely under all emissions pathways”, he added.

Abbassi went on to add, “The effects of climate change are threatening our health, our communities, our economy, our security, and our future.”

According to Mahmood Masood Tamana, Director General (C&I) Local Government & CD Department, one of the biggest challenges of the climate change issue is that it is still perceived by many as an environmental issue. “Whereas the reality is that climate change is an economic issue, a social issue, a development issue and a political stability issue,” he said.

She asked for spatial planning i.e. classification of local areas into land use classes’ namely residential, commercial, industrial, and agriculture and notified area and land use into the categories of permitted, permissible and prohibited.

“ If we are to have a hope of being resilient in a changing climate, local governments are going to have to shift their planning considerations to 30–50 year horizons,” she asserted.

Prof Dr Arifa Tahir, Chairperson Environmental Science Department at Lahore College For Women University, said that we have the lowest financial, technological and institutional capabilities to rapidly switch to a net-zero-aligned growth trajectory.

“By investing in technologies and practices relevant to wastewater control and treatment we can reduce uncontrolled greenhouse gas emissions, and improve public health. She also asked for creating jobs – both at the high and low-skilled ends of the spectrum as it helped the population become more resilient to natural disasters.”