The Sindh government came under fire at an event on Monday for the lack of concern and action towards growing environmental degradation in Karachi, which was described as a bowl of poison due to its worsened air quality, taking a heavy toll on everyone, including pregnant women and their unborn children.
The event on “Karachi’s Ignored Toxic Air quality and the Mounting Health Toll” was organised by the Karachi Citizens Forum (KCF)
“The air is so polluted with toxic elements today that the city has literally turned into a bowl filled with poison, endangering survival of all forms of life,” shared Yasir Hussain, an environmentalist who has been studying the city’s air quality for over a year.
Half of the city’s air pollution, he pointed out, was caused by vehicular traffic. “We gradually need to phase out vehicles with internal combustion engines as vehicular emissions are a major source of air pollution. Burning fuel creates harmful byproducts like nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide as well as carbon dioxide,” Mr Hussain said.
He regretted that the successive governments chose harmful ways for energy production, aggravating the country’s environmental crisis and endangering public health.
“We should have made green solutions our priority for energy production and sought help from China, the largest solar panel maker in the world. But the governments opted for coal for energy production.”
