960422

Azfar calls for

war against

pollution

KARACHI: Sindh Governor, Kamal Azfar on Sunday, called upon the citizens to wage a war against pollution and said a mental revolution should be brought about to carry out the crusade.

He was speaking at an "Earth Day" function organised by Environmental Protection Agency, Sindh in collaboration with Pakistan Crescent Youth Organisation at the Arts Council of Pakistan, here on Monday.

This city, the Governor observed, has suffered a lot during the last 10 years. But our students and children deserve every tribute for having identified the real enemy of the city - which is pollution.

"If we have to control pollution we all will have to fight together and announce a war against it", the Governor said.

" Our youngsters have taught a lesson to their elders by establishing "Environmental Clubs" in educational institutitions and I salute them for setting up 775 such clubs in Karachi which have started creating awareness among all sections of people against pollution", the Governor said.

He referred to process of urbanization throughout the country and particularly population explosion in Karachi and said the city's population today had exceeded the total population of big cities of Pakistan what it was 50 years back.

This population growth, he said, had created a number of problems like water supply, sanitation, sewerage disposal etc. He said our 40 percent water was going waste because of leakages in the system whereas there was need for treatment plants to tackle some 200 MGD of sewage.

The governor said that besides air pollution, the noise pollution was also a major problem in Karachi which will be resolved to some extent with the operation of Mass Transit System in 1998.-APP