Climate minister suggests banning unnecessary vehicles on weekends

LAHORE: Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul has called for imposing a transport emergency in all major cities including Lahore to control smog and air pollution, saying that there should be a complete ban on unnecessary vehicles coming on the roads on weekends.

She was addressing a seminar on “Effects of Smog on Human Health” after launching a tree plantation campaign at the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Monday.

Gul said that despite not being a heavily industrial country, Pakistan was badly affected by the issues of climate change and global warming.

She added the country was especially vulnerable to wild weather and other effects of climate change including sea intrusion, unusual rain patterns, rising temperatures, and drought.

“On one hand, the already-arid region of Thar desert is, unfortunately, experiencing recurring droughts whereas, on the other hand, the groundwater table in some cities of Balochistan has gone down to 1,200 feet”, the minister said.

The minister said that if the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had not started building 10 dams, people would have died of thirst in the years to come.

She said that concerted efforts, public awareness, and evidence-based policies are required to counter the adverse impacts of climate change and impending disasters of environmental degradation.

She committed that her ministry would work closely with the university on such projects and also provide funding in the future.

She claimed that so far, more than 1.47 billion trees have been planted in the country under the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami which is also being appreciated globally.

She said that 70 per cent of the trees in Lahore were cut down during the previous regime to make Lahore a “double storey city”.

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