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‘Environment going bust because of too many people’

Staff Report

KARACHI: Over population in developing countries and the mishandling of natural resources are the main causes for the rising environmental degradation and global climate changes, said national and international environmental experts.

“Managing the urban environment is a particularly serious issue for Asia, as its population is migrating to cities at an unprecedented rate,” said Dr Margherita Turvani, associate professor of the department of planning, University IUAV, Venice, Italy.

She said this while addressing an international workshop on Global Environmental Conflicts: Change and Adaptation, jointly organized Thursday by the Institute of Environmental Studies and the Area Study Centre for Europe, with collaboration of the Higher Education Commission, at the University of Karachi.

Dr Turvani said that overpopulation is a major issue for developing countries. “In Asian developing countries, the proportion of urban population is expected to rise by 50 percent by 2020. The population of 18 big Asian cities, out of a global total of 27, will increased to more than 10 million people. With this kind of growth, handling fresh water and basic health care facilities will be a challenge,” she said. Mishandling natural resources is also a major cause of global climate changes and environmental degradation, she added.

“Changes in the environment and climate are a global issue, and developed countries, especially European countries, have to transfer modern technology to developing countries for the betterment of the global environment,” she told Daily Times.

The increasing population is causing climate changes because of unsustainable consumption patterns of the rich, industrialized countries, said Professor Dr Naveed Ahmed Tahir, director of the Institute of Environmental Studies.

She said that, after degrading the environment, the rich and industrialized countries have to repay their ecological debt to the poorer sections of the world’s population, which unfortunately are affected the most by environmental degradation and climate change.

University of Karachi Vice-Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim Raza Siddiqui urged for joint efforts to face environmental challenges. “Mega cities such as Karachi have been striving for basic facilities such as water for the last several decades, and environmental degradation is another challenge for us,” he said.

He said that in 1843, when the capital of Sindh was shifted from Hyderabad to Karachi, the management prioritized the matter of safe drinking, but is still struggling to achieve it. “We have to resolve these matters first, and also have to manage the environment,” he said.

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