Natural disasters: Experts on how to deal with climate change

KARACHI:

A recent UN report shows that Lahore and Karachi are one of the most polluted cities in the world, said journalist Rina Saeed at a seminar on corporate social responsibility. “The government, private organisations and people need to work together to deal with the situation.”

The seminar was titled ‘A climate change perspective’ and was organised by One United Nations Joint Programme on Environment and Pakistan Center for Philanthropy at the Sheraton Hotel.

While speaking at the event on Wednesday, Saeed said that the change was for real and would be catastrophic in the future. She said that nearly Rs9.7 billion was spent on damages caused by the floods last year. Saeed added that the recent floods had highlighted the fact that the situation was most likely to get worse.

Usman Manzoor, programme analyst at the UN joint programme on environment, briefed the audience about the programme and said that the conditions would improve if all the sectors of the government coordinated.

He added that Pakistan was one of eight countries where the UN was working on environment.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2011.