Prime example: How Siemens measured Karachi - and 'flunked' it

KARACHI: The good news is that Karachi did better than Delhi and Kuala Lumpur when it came to water. The bad news is that overall it was graded as 'well below average' - the only one out of 22 Asian cities - by the Economist Intelligence Unit's green cities index sponsored by Siemens.

According to information provided by Zia ul Islam Zuberi, the Siemens Pakistan head of communications, in general, the assessment of Karachi is based, wherever possible, on publicly available data from official sources, such as national statistical offices, or local city authorities - mostly online or in print.

Most of the data comes from the Karachi Master Plan 2020 and the Urban Resource Centre. "Qualitative indicators were scored independently by EIU analysts, based on a check-list of specific environmental criteria that limits the scope for judgement or bias," he said. "The Asian Green City Index was published in 2011, however, the majority of data for Karachi relates to data from the years 2008 or earlier because of availability."