Pakistan lacks guidelines for running a special system to safely dispose of infected trash and clinical waste being generated by the isolation and quarantine centres and hospitals across the country where the patients of Covid-19 are being kept and treated as this issue could create a serious health and environmental emergency in the country. FPCCI marks 50th anniversary of International Earth Day.
This was one of the major concerns expressed by the concerned environmental activists who participated via the video-link in the virtual conference held by Central Standing Committee on Environment of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) in collaboration with National Forum for Environment & Health (NFEH) to mark the 50th year of the International Earth Day-2020.
Another serious concern expressed by the participants of the video conference was absence of a proper waste water treatment system in a big a city like Karachi as this issue is a major challenge during the Covid-19 emergency as our overburdened public health system could not afford people catching waterborne diseases while the defective sewerage system could become a cause of spread of the fatal coronavirus.
The concerned participants said that routine municipal system being used to dispose of garbage of the isolation/quarantine centres and hospitals would create a serious environmental hazard that would lead to further spread of the Covid-19 cases in the country.
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They lamented that waste disposal system and practice was not part of the standard operating procedures adopted by the federal and provincial governments to isolate and treat Covid-19 patients as lack of such protocols would be disastrous for the environmental conditions in the country that are already too much compromised.
The concerned speakers said that urban centres like Karachi already lacked proper municipal waste disposal system as trash related to hospital, isolation and quarantine centres was an added burden on environment of the country.
Speaking on the occasion, senior environmental consultant Saquib Ejaz Hussain said that proper environmental monitoring system should be put in place in the country to assess the positive effects of the continuing Covid-19 lockdown in the country in terms of lessening of air pollution.
He said that without such a monitoring system proper planning could not be done to restart the industrial, business, mass travelling activities in the country in the post-lockdown scenario in a regulated and controlled manner so to sustain the recent improvement in the environmental conditions.
Senior environmentalist RafiulHaq said that instances of respiratory ailments would continue to increase in the country with air quality getting degenerated as in such a situation immunity of the people against fatal viral diseases like Covid-19 would be compromised.
He lamented that building by-laws meant to safeguard environment were not being implemented in cities like Karachi as construction was continuously being done at the cost of environmental conditions.
Ecologist Tofiq Pasha said that developmental activities in urban centres like Karachi had adversely affected the environmental conditions and also hastened the process of climate change.
He said that improvement in environmental and climatic conditions during the Covid-19 lockdown period had to be sustained by regulating the practices like urbanization and fossil fuel use for transportation.
Environmentalist Hina Jamshed said that third world countries should come up with proper waste disposal system during the Covid-19 emergency as being done in the case of developed nations.
She said that past epidemics had enabled the developed countries like the UK to have proper systems to dispose of hazardous clinical waste being generated by the health facilities as a result of the treatment being given to the people suffering from deadly infectious diseases.
Noted industrialist Mian Zahid Hussain said the FPCCI would make sure that all its member bodies would implement environmental laws and regulations so that industrial activities in the country should cause least harm to the environment.
Senior journalist Afia Salam said that marked improvement in environment around the globe due to the Covid-19-related restrictions on human activities would open massive avenues for the scientists and researchers to do research on environmental issues.
Convener of the FPCCI Central Standing Committee on Environment Naeem Qureshi said that environmental activists around the world had the fullest resolve to sustain improvement in environment due to the Covid-19 lockdown as for the purpose guidelines are being given to the relevant governmental authorities.
He said that lack of greenery and tree cutting in the past had caused massive harm to the environment in Pakistan.
Seema Taher CEO Airwaves Media, Yasir Hussain Educationalist, S.M. Farooq Manager HSE Midas Safety & others also shared their thoughts during the conference.
