The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has made it binding upon builders of new housing societies in the city to plant tree saplings along with construction of housing facilities to get mandatory approval for environmental mitigation plans for upcoming residential estates.
SEPA Director General Naeem Ahmed Mughal stated this while speaking at the launching of city-wide plantation drive under “Green Karachi” initiative by National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) in collaboration with Support of Korea Green Foundation in the metropolis. Under the “Green Karachi” programme 15,000 trees and plant saplings would be planted in the city till end of September 2016 in connection with the ongoing monsoon season.
The chief of SEPA said that such measures for promotion of greenery had been made compulsory for new housing schemes in order to promote plantation of trees in the city as greenery was fast fading creating environment in Karachi inhospitable for human life. He said areas in suburbs of the city including Landhi, Gadap, and Hub Chowki had considerable greenery but few decades back all plants and trees were wiped out owing to fast spreading housing facilities.
He said the heat wave witnessed by Karachi last year had claimed so many lives owing to ever lessening number of trees and shrinking greenery on public spaces in the city. The chief of provincial environment watchdog lamented the situation that people had kept on increasing their reliance on motor vehicles on individual basis while there had been no promotion of healthy activities like bicycling for transportation. He said there was not much emphasis on using green and renewable sources of energy including wind and solar power. He said such a sorry state of affairs had been creating serious repercussions for environment of the country.
Aijaz Ahmed Nizamani, chief conservator of Sindh Forest Department, said his department would provide technical and logistical resource and material support to any of the non-governmental or private organisation willing to do plantation drive in the city on the lines of NFEH. He said that the forest department from its own resources could provide 25,000 plant saplings for such a plantation drive in Karachi along with logistical support. He said successive plantation drives had led to increase in presence of mangrove plants at coastal belt of Keti Bandar in Thatta as this was one success story on the part of provincial government to ensure reforestation in the province.
He said mass media had been doing a great job by highlighting the issue of diminishing mangroves in coastal areas of Karachi but at the same time it should also show to the concerned people achievement of the govt in doing reforestation in Keti Bandar area. Rafiul Haq, a senior plant ecologist, said the world lost 15 billion trees every year as deforestation around the world spread to an area annually which, if totaled, could match the entire area of Bangladesh.
He said last year the heat wave had caused hundreds of human causalities owing to fast depleting trees and vegetation from the city.