Karachi: The Sindh government has banned the use of water in plastic bottles in government offices, but is it being implemented or not, and only by banning the use of water in plastic bottles in government offices? How much of a difference will environmental pollution make?
In order to get answers to these questions, in the research done by Express, it was found that the ban on the use of water in plastic bottles has been implemented to some extent in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, but other offices of the Sindh government, including the Sindh Secretariat. I have not implemented it.
An employee of the Sindh Livestock Department office located in front of the Sindh Assembly told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity that this ban has not yet been implemented in the government offices located in the Sindh Secretariat, to improve the environment in Karachi. According to Mehmood Alam Khalid, a worker, this initiative of the government is very important to reduce environmental pollution, but it must be implemented.
He said that restrictions have been imposed on the use of plastic bottles for water in the offices of the federal government, but it could not be implemented there either.
Muhammad Tawheed, associate director of Urban Lab IBA Karachi, said that even if it is implemented in government offices, it will not make a significant difference to environmental pollution because most of the use of plastic bottles for water is in private offices and restaurants. This is why it is necessary to ban the use of plastic bottles in private offices and restaurants.
According to a report by the International Trade Administration, an organization managed by the Department of Commerce of the US government, 87,000 tons of dry waste (solid waste) is generated in Pakistan every week, while 16,500 tons of garbage are generated daily in Karachi, the largest city in the country.
Afaq Bhatti, another environmental activist from Karachi, said that plastic is the second most common waste after kitchen waste in the city. While about 7 thousand tons of waste can be recycled and reused here on a daily basis, the institutions working here do not have that much capacity.
