KARACHI: Despite an Ideal location, good industrial base and a large educated workforce, making Karachi a sustainable city is still a distant dream because of the lack of vision and commitment with our successive governments, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Sunday.
In a statement, he said The UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 defines sustainable cities as those that are dedicated to achieving green sustainability, social sustainability and economic sustainability. They are committed to doing so by enabling opportunities for all through a design focused on inclusivity, as well as, maintaining a sustainable economic growth.
He said presently Karachi is considered amongst the most polluted cities of the region. It lacks efficient and environment friendly public transport, green architecture, urban farming, renewable energy sources, and proper water conservation and waste management. He said without meeting these five important goals we can’t make Karachi a sustainable or eco-city.
He said in terms of public transport, Karachi is the worst megacity of the world. Not talking about eco-friendly public transport, it even lacks a respectable conventional commuting system. Even the decades old surface rail commuting system, Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) is dysfunctional. The city still depends on rickshaws and Chingchies. The Green Line bus rapid transit (BRT) system could not yet be fully completed. Orange Line BRT is totally ill-planned as useless till effectively extending it to the city centre, preferably to the Keamari port area. Red Line BRT is just a dug up road, with no sign in sight of early completion. Other government announced BRT systems are still on paper and there is no deadline for them.
In fact, without connecting all BRT systems with a working KCR, assisted by a fleet of feeder buses, Karachi could not be given an efficient commuting system. Making the public transport system eco-friendly is the next level and it may take a few more centuries considering our corrupt and visionless political parties and governments.
He said introducing big urban desalination plants, constructing new reservoirs and feeder canals from the Indus River are not on the priority of our policymakers and without them Karachi would continue to be a water deficient city. He said check dams on rain-fed streams like Lyari, Malir and Mole Rivers are a must. Water recharging wells in different locations of the megacity are necessary to improve the water table. Recycling of waste water for industrial use is a must to cater our growing water needs. However, we are unable to even start a simple and small Cogen water desalination plant in the DHA.
Solid waste system is another sorry story as even after giving costly contracts to foreign firms, the megacity is still a big garbage heap. It needs an effective and corrupt-free solid waste system on a sustainable recycling basis.
Karachi is a sunshine city, but it is not tapping the huge potential of solar energy. In fact every household, shop, industry and other structure of the megacity needs solar panels to get rid of costly electricity as well as crippling load shedding.
Green areas, parks, coastal mangrove jungles and urban forests are badly needed in Karachi besides rooftop gardening to make it a clean and green megacity on a sustainable basis.
He also demanded steps for proper human development in the megacity. He asked for construction on new hospitals, educational centres, urban housing schemes and new industrial zones. He asked to construct Karachi-Keti Bunder and Karachi-Hyderabad industrial corridors to boost job creation activities not only in Karachi but also in its surrounding areas. He said focusing on new creek ports and new fishing harbours and jetties would also be helpful in sustainable job creation for the people of Karachi.
Shakoor demanded from the city, provincial and federal governments to give top priority to making Karachi a sustainable city in true letter and spirit as it would also help in overall economic development of Pakistan.