Most LG officials in the dark about climate change

97% of survey respondents say their UC is not making any plan to deal with impact.

LAHORE: Out of 150 local body officials representing union councils in the city, almost 53% are unaware of the phenomenon of climate change, this was the alarming revelation of a research study, the results of which were released before World Environment Day on Monday.

A study on Awareness of Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation at a Local Level in Punjab was conducted by Zareen Shahid who is currently affiliated with the University of Engineering and Technology Lahore and Awais Piracha from the Urban Studies Department of Western Sydney University.

While 71 out of 150 officials were moderately aware of the phenomenon, only 6% had a deeper understanding of the concept, said the study.

It added that only 21 out of 71 officials considered climate change as a manmade phenomenon, while an overwhelming majority considered both natural and manmade factors responsible for rising temperatures. This further indicated the lack of concrete knowledge among moderately educated officials.

The majority of the respondents, or 97%, said their union council was not making any climate change adaptation plans to deal with the impacts. Meanwhile, a majority of officials also termed lack of funds and political instability as the main barriers in promoting climate change awareness.



The research, originally conducted in 2011, was recently published in the Volume 72 of the Water Science and Technology Library Journal by Springer in September 2016.

According to Lahore Mayor Colonel (Retd) Mubashir Javed, the local government arranges several workshops to educate its officials about the importance of conserving energy. However, he did not mention any campaigns or workshops specifically held to create climate change awareness.

On the contrary, Deputy Mayor Chaudhary Bilal said no such initiatives to sensitise UC officials had ever been taken, other than programmes to tackle dengue or promote sanitation and a clean environment.

Similarly, Environmental Attorney Asif Ali Siyal said since the enactment of the Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance 2015, no workshop has been organised even though some awareness initiatives were taken previously through the Lahore High Court.

“Even though the current local government ordinance does offer salient provisions to ensure environmental protection in a municipality, it does not specifically mention anything about awareness or the education of officials.”

He added the current provision only deals with ensuring clean drinking water and sanitation, but fails to address environmental issues in a more specific and clear manner.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2017.