Environment

Articles relating to the environment

The impeding disaster: Global warming is fuelling tropical cyclones at an unprecedented rate

Posted Mon, 12/22/2008 - 08:02

By Asma Rashid
Awareness regarding climate change and its economic and social impacts is one of the dire needs of the hour considering the ever-mounting phenomenon of global warming. Tropical cyclones, which bring in their wake huge devastation to life and property, is the area where people need to be educated beforehand, particularly at a time when global climate change has every likelihood to enhance their frequency and intensity with the passage of time.

Water experts’ team on Manchhar proposed

Posted Fri, 12/19/2008 - 06:05

HYDERABAD, Dec 18, 2008: A committee of experts should be formed to look into the problems of releasing Manchhar Lake water into the River Indus, said Director, High-tech Central Resources Laboratory, University of Sindh, Dr M.Y. Khuhawar.

Experts with considerable experience should be taken from the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, University of Karachi, PCSIR laboratories and National Centre of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry, University of Sindh, he said.

Mangroves discovered near Thatta

Posted Fri, 12/19/2008 - 05:59

Karachi: Experts have discovered and are trying to preserve the presence of mangroves in a site located some 120-kilometres inshore in the Thatta district — adjacent to the south-eastern lower part of Keenjhar Lake. What is unique about this patch of vegetation, according to experts, is that is it far from the shore, and is also not connected to the River Indus or the sea.

Environmental concerns abound

Posted Fri, 12/19/2008 - 05:57

Karachi

The Sindh Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) called an immediate meeting to prepare a quick assessment report with recommendations to send to higher authorities regarding the oil pipeline burst in Korangi. Officials, however, refused to share the decisions of the meeting, and said that they will present the report directly to the high-ups.

Committee on lake water meets today

Posted Thu, 12/18/2008 - 11:39

HYDERABAD, Dec 17, 2008: A provincial water release committee will meet on Thursday to decide the quantum of water to be released into River Indus from Manchhar Lake whose level is rising and release of water from it is becoming inevitable to save the lake’s embankments.

On the other hand, the annual closure of Kotri Barrage is approaching fast and the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) which had faced a setback in storage of water due to November 10 breach in its third lagoon, is trying to fill its reservoirs before the closure takes place.

Turtle breeding season nears its end

Posted Mon, 12/15/2008 - 17:14

KARACHI, Dec 14: As winter begins to set in, green turtles, which come to Karachi’s Hawkesbay and Sandspit beaches to lay their eggs, are now beginning to return to the ocean.

Though green turtles lay eggs throughout the year, peak season is between August and December, ending when it becomes too cold.

The green turtle population has been declining, as poachers have been killing more and more turtles to feed the demand for their eggs and meat.

The cultural wasteland’s romance for the past

Posted Mon, 12/15/2008 - 17:10

Karachi: Once rich in cultural, sports and literary activities Lyari, at present, suffers because it has never been high on the list of the government’s priorities. Intellectuals from Lyari claim that the literacy ratio here used to be a far more than what it is at present. This is because earlier merit was the only criteria, which has now been replaced by “bias and favouritism.”

RBOD project serious threat to Haleji Lake

Posted Mon, 12/08/2008 - 09:44

KARACHI, Dec 7: The Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) being dug out in close proximity to the Haleji Lake poses a direct threat to the wetland, once called a birdwatchers’ paradise, already under severe stress owing to inadequate water, a visit to the site revealed.

Taking politics out of water

By Shahid Javed Burki
THE Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington has taken considerable interest in policymaking in Pakistan. The centre serves as a living memorial to President Woodrow Wilson who served the US when it was consolidating its position as an emerging global power.

Rather than erect a concrete structure on the Mall as the Americans had been doing for their beloved presidents, the US Congress decided to set up a public-policy institution in his memory.

Slow poisoning

Posted Tue, 12/02/2008 - 07:46

WE are killing the planet and ourselves in the process. Citing a 2006 World Bank study, the Sindh environment minister said at a seminar in Karachi on Saturday that pollution is causing some 25,000 deaths a year in Pakistan and costing the country roughly six per cent of its GDP. Needless to say, it is the poorest of the poor that are hit hardest by this toxic assault on our day-to-day lives. It is the poor who are forced to live in areas that nobody else finds desirable, where factories discharge fumes and effluent that would make people of a more genteel upbringing recoil.