Index to judge cities on how green they are

‘Clean Green Index’ to foster competition among cities

The federal government aims to create a rewards and punishment programme for cities of the country in terms of their environmental performance such as public access to clean drinking water, safe sanitation, effective solid waste management and tree plantation. For this purpose, the firstevery ‘Clean Green Pakistan Index’ (CGPI) is expected to be launched this week. This was announced by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam on Sunday. Speaking to the media, Aslam said that the index is expected to be launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan on October 30 in a ceremony. At its launching, the index will contain baseline data for 19 competing cities from Punjab and KhyberPakhtunkhwa (K-P). This will also kick-off the first phase of the competition. After six months, the 19 cities will be ranked again.

Those who show prominent progress in the first phase of the competition will be rewarded with special funds from the federal and provincial governments. Moreover, additional cities will be added to the competition to intensify the second phase of the programme. Aslam explained that the incumbent government is focusing on transforming the overall outlook of Pakistani cities, which will become key economic engines of the country in the coming days. “Urban areas in many countries across the world play vital roles in the socioeconomic development [of those countries],” the climate change adviser said, adding, “It is because, cities are now providing economies of scale and they are also providing efficient infrastructure and services through density and concentration in sustainable transportation, communications, power, human interactions, water and sanitation services and

effective waste management and enhanced urban forestry activities.” Explaining CGPI’s core objective, Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) Secretary Hassan Nasir Jami said that the index is being kicked off to start a competition amongst these cities. In the first phase, it will be limited to cities located in Punjab and K-P. Later, he said, they expect to expand the competition to other provinces of the country. Spelling out various aspects of the CGPI, Jami further said, “The CGPI

fundamentally comprises the five pillars of the Clean Green Pakistan Movement launched by PM Imran last year including water, sanitation, hygiene, solid waste management and plantation.” To judge the performance of cities for CGPI, he said that each of the five pillars will be assigned the equal weight of 20 marks and cities will be assessed against these five pillars. “The CGPI, hammered out by the MoCC, will primarily measure clean and green characters of the cities on 27 different indicators under these five pillars. This index will be used as a measuringrod for performance to make annual budgetary allocations to the provinces from the national kitty,” Jami added. Talking about the datagathering exercise for the 27 indicators of the CGPI, MoCC Acting Inspector General of Forests Suleman Warraich, explained that the data for the index will be gathered

at the household and neighbourhood levels through surveys which will be conducted by local government departments. He further said that data regarding the service delivery in water, sanitation, hygiene, solid waste management and plantation categories will be collected every three months from the respective city councils and administration working in each district of the provincial cities. Once the data has been evaluated by the MoCC, results for the performance of cities on these five pillars will be tabulated and announced twice a year, Warraich added. He hoped that the CGPI will be used as a yardstick to improve the role of cities in transforming its inhabitants’ overall standard of living through improved environmental services and sustained provision of safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.