Islamabad: A World Bank (WB) report has revealed that Karachi’s green areas decreased by four percent between 2005 and 2017, according to a news report. The findings have further disclosed that the city’s urban environment and infrastructural provisions have not been able to keep up with the pace of its growth. To this effect, the urban extent in the central city has increased by eight percent; reducing the green areas.
The WB launched this report, titled ‘The hidden wealth of cities: creating, financing, and managing public places’, on Tuesday at the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi. It revealed that the average number of street intersections in Karachi per square kilometre stood at 71.7, despite the United Nations Human Settlements Programme’s benchmark being 100 street intersection per square kilometre.
Karachi’s population increased from 10 million in 1998 to 16
million in 2017, but infrastructural development did not increase at the same
pace during the said years. The report covered two cities, Karachi and Dhaka,
and concluded that governments needed to invest in the creation and management
of high-quality public spaces.
