The Sindh government has invited the corporate sector, including multinational companies, to join its campaign to grow and maintain urban forests in Karachi and other cities of the province.
Speaking at a consultative session organised by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry's (FPCCI) central standing committee on the environment, Sindh forest and wildlife secretary Abdul Rahim Soomro said the government would provide land and other technical assistance to those participating in the drive.
He clarified that the provincial forest department would provide all possible assistance to the private sector for the cause, even providing land for the purpose, but without any transfers of ownership.
Telling the participants that plantation along the Lyari river had emerged as the first major success story for developing an urban forest in Karachi, Soomro added that a site in Shah Faisal Colony had also been selected for another urban forest along the Malir river.
"The Sindh Forest Department has been conducting an extensive mangrove plantation drive along the coastline too, under which a record number of 2.1 billion mangroves have already been planted," he further claimed, adding that the department was also trying to recover thousands of acres of forest land that had been occupied by influential encroachers.
Moreover, he stated, they were also attempting to discourage the practice of cutting trees by trying to have it criminalised, so that action could be taken against the culprits.
Meanwhile, industrialist Mian Zahid Hussain said the FPCCI would play its due role to promote greenery in the country and to curb the harmful practice of discharging untreated industrial effluents into water bodies, including the sea.
Echoing Hussain's views, the standing committee's convener, Naeem Qureshi, said the unchecked release of industrial waste had caused irreparable damage to the marine environment, adding that wastewater treatment plants should be established at the earliest to prevent any further damage.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 31st, 2020.
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