PM fears second Covid spike in winter

Imran Khan says high level of pollution is contributing to rising number of coronavirus cases

ISLAMABAD:

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday feared a second wave of the novel coronavirus in the country’s urban centres, which are already reeling under pollution in the coming months, echoing the frequently used “winter is coming” warning used in the famous medieval fantasy television series: Game of Thrones.

The prime minister’s latest warning appears to be connected with his earlier statement given in March when he hoped that Pakistan’s “hot and dry” weather would help mitigate the coronavirus outbreak.

The common in both the statements, however, is the premier’s request to people to exercise social distancing and self-discipline.

The premier expressed these views while addressing the Encouragement Award Ceremony of Clean Green Index of 19 competing cities of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Islamabad on Monday evening.

“Several cities, where pollution levels are high, experience smog during October and November, when temperatures start to drop,” said the prime minister while addressing the ceremony.

“I fear that in two months … cities like Faisalabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Gujranwala where there is more pollution, there might be a second spike in coronavirus cases,” PM said while disclosing that the government “is monitoring the situation”. He hoped that the COVID-19 cases “don’t quickly increase”.

The prime minister, emphasising the need of reforestation, controlling air pollution and better management of solid waste, said pollution becomes stagnant in the atmosphere, leading to spread of diseases during the winter season.

“Our coming generations will have to face the consequence of the way we have destroyed our forests,” he said..

Highlighting the government’s measures for reforestation, he spoke about planting 10 billion trees across the country, adding different proposals for cleaning cities and generating electricity from solid waste were also under consideration.

Imran said pollution in the Punjab's capital has increased because nearly 70 per cent of the green cover in Lahore was gone. He, subsequently, lamented how country’s various cities, including Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi, used to be clean but were now suffering from pollution.

“People used to drink Peshawar’s water as if it was mineral water,” he recalled.

Speaking about Karachi, he said trash and garbage could be seen scattered on the streets and along roadsides of the country’s economic hub.

Throughout his speech, he emphasised changing the mindset. “The mindset is to be changed first and then you will see change in the surroundings,” he said.

While lauding district administrations and appreciating the performance of different deputy commissioners, he announced that the incentives, including better ACRs, acknowledgment certificates, bonuses and pay raise should be given to deputy commissioners for their hard work.

On the contrary, he said, DCs with poor performance should be punished and added it should not be the case that salaries of everyone are increased without gauging who did what.

The prime minister said better performance should be rewarded with millions, saying the reward was for protecting the lives of the people and making their lives better by taking different initiatives.

The prime minister had launched the Clean Green Pakistan Movement (CGPI) on November 25, 2019. The major focus of the initiative was to inculcate a spirit of competition on cleanliness initiatives in the cities and facilitate the behavioural change, building positive attitudes, institutional strengthening for better water, sanitation and hygiene services and facilities.

A total 35 sub-indicators for ranking the cities were used against five core pillars; access to water, access to sanitation, hygiene, solid waste management and plantation.

In the ceremony, the prime minister highlighted his government’s policies during the coronavirus pandemic, saying the World Health Organisation (WHO) among other things have praised Pakistan’s Covid-19 strategy.

In the Clean Green Cities Index Awards of Cities, Attock secured first position with a lead on plantation followed by Bahawalpur with a lead on Solid Waste in “overall category” in Punjab.

Lahore stood at third position with overall lead on water and hygiene, Gujrat got fourth while Rawalpindi was awarded fifth position.

In the overall category in K-P, Bannu was declared first; Kohat, second while Abbottabad secured the third position. Peshawar got the ‘Innovation Award for Cities’ with the highest performance for access to safe drinking water, Sahiwal in ‘community participation’, while Gujranwala was awarded for “beautification and parks”.