The experts on Monday demanded that a close coordination and mutual implementation framework to enforce law was must to avert illegal constructions and encroachment in water bodies near peri urban areas causing serious natural hazards like urban flooding land and water pollution.
The Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) organised the seminar titled illegal constructions in water bodies in peri urban areas of the federal capital to stir debate and extract workable recommendations to ensure remedy to the lurking issue.
Executive Director SDPI, Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, in his opening remarks, said the webinar and hybrid seminar was held on a pertinent topic that became more relevant in every monsoon season in the country.
Dr Suleri said due to urban flooding in the housing societies constructed illegally in water bodies or the Indus River that swells up in monsoon in the areas of Muzaffargarh and Kacha area got inundated that gave its inhabitants a false sense of security as it deluged their lifetime savings.
The event was organised to delve deep into this issue to derive suggestions for its resolution, he added.
Minister of State and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister and Convener Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Secretariat Romina Khurshid Alam said the topic was related to SDG 11 i.e. make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
She said half of the country’s population was living in urban areas with a continuous migration from rural areas, adding, “We are having the problems of air pollution, transportation, healthcare, unreliable municipal facilities etc. The illegal housing societies are a scar on the face of fertile lands of the capital. It’s damaging the ecosystems with spiking migration without proper know-how of resources and facilities available in the cities among the rural masses.”
The minister said weak regulatory check on housing societies was a serious issue resulting urban flooding.
She highlighted that it was necessary to have an effective communication and implementation strategy for promising outcomes.
“We will seriously take up the suggestions shared through this forum as civil society coalition is necessary for good progress on implementation of laws,” she said.
DG Pak-EPA, Farzana Altaf Shah presented a short documentary prepared by the Agency on encroachments, human settlements on the procured area of CDA in Lakhwal and other peri urban areas that were polluting land and fresh water channels, alongwith encroachments and illegal settlements in water bodies.
She regretted that the masses at large were unaware of environmental degradation within the capital whereas the main stakeholder CDA was not present in the seminar.
The coordination among civic bodies was necessary which was not thought-about earlier, where environmental management had made it unavoidable for all civic bodies due to its crosscutting nature, she added.
She underscored that the master plan of Islamabad was the most efficient that could easily integrate mass-transit system and afford traffic load without any major changes in its road network.
“Our coordination mechanism is weak i.e. among Pak-EPA, the Planning Commission and CDA. Islamabad Capital Territory Administration is also another important stakeholder that is dealing with many crosscutting issues,” she told the participants.
She informed that the Agency as the only environmental watchdog had no enforcement arm and was dependent on law enforcement agencies to ensure implementation of laws.
“Pak-EPA is proposing a project to the Ministry of Climate Change to introduce its own enforcement inspectors team and submitted it in the ministry as per the suggestion of the Minister and Secretary of the Ministry,” she added.
“A legal, political, private, and public support is necessary for implementing laws like ban on plastic bags,” she said.
Former Federal Secretary and Inspector General of Police Dr Kalim Imam said it was a collective responsibility to prevent spoilers of the process ensuring improvement and national good.
“There needs to be certainty in the process for quick punishment on violations made in any case,” he added.
There needed to be a prudent and practical approach towards this issue and the areas procured by the CDA in peripheral areas of the capital should be developed for better living infrastructure.
“The accountability of the concerned authorities should be done for better enforcement of the laws to end peri urban areas crisis as the climate change has struck our lives,” he said.
“Intellectual dishonesty should be declared a crime and should be punished as the officers and policy makers giving imprudent policies should be punished for wasting public time and resources,” he added.
Environmental Lawyer Advocate Shazia Bilal said the peri urban areas located at the outskirts of the federal capital were illegally dumping household waste into Rawal Lake whereas the peri urban areas were not regulated and planned by the civic authorities.
President Environmental Journalist Association (EJA) and senior environmental journalist Abid Ali Azmi said the first phase after master plan, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for peri urban areas development near water bodies was critical. He regretted that the EIA was implemented in the central areas of the capital but the surrounding areas did not follow it.
EIA public hearing, he said was done as a formality without local stakeholders and was given least importance. Azmi told the forum that the public buildings in the periphery areas were not following the bi-laws of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) where both EPA and the Authority lacked coordination.
