Islamabad: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam on Tuesday said that the government was focused on ‘transforming the overall outlook of cities’; further stating that urban areas were increasing becoming unlivable due to open dumping of municipal solid waste, a news source reported.
He said that the executive introduced the Clean Green Pakistan Index (CGPI) in November 2019 to address challenges posed to the country’s urban environment and to ensure healthy livable conditions for the citizens. He added that the CGPI was designed to promote competition between cities by tracing indicators such as access to potable water, sanitation services, effective solid waste management, and tree plantation.
The initiative determines the environmental character of cities on the basis of a total of 35 indicators, and will be used as a benchmark for annual budgetary allocations to the provinces from the national exchequer, he added.
Aslam said that the government had measured the performance of at least 20 cities from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on the CGPI. He added that the cities included Attock, Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Okara, and Bahawalpur.
These cities were judged on the basis of their performance with regard to the delivery of public services such as safe drinking water, solid and liquid waste management, city beautification, cleanliness of streets, the usability of parks, tree plantation, total sanitation and hygiene, and community participation.
He said that the results obtained by the Ministry of Climate Change were encouraging; adding that Attock was seen to rank the highest (in Punjab) with 76.53 points, followed by Bahawalpur with 74.8 points, Lahore with 74.3 points, Gujrat with 70.46 points, Rawalpindi with 69.94 points, Sahiwal with 65.88 points, Gujranwala with 64.39 points, Faisalabad with 62.97 points, Multan with 60.63 points, Sialkot with 56.27 points, Sargodha with 56.1 points, D.G. Khan with 53.45 points, and Murree with 37.29 points.
In KP, the minister said, Bannu emerged as the highest scoring district with 57.5 points, followed by Abbottabad with 52.72 points, Peshawar with 45.39 points, Mardan with 34.17 points, Swat with 30.97 points, and Dera Ismail (DI) Khan with 21.19 points. He further stated that the executive intended to extend the programme to Balochistan, Sindh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir on a timely basis.
