LAHORE - The Lahore Bachao Tehreek held a meeting to finalise strategy on raising awareness among public about the Canal Bank Road widening proposal. Environmentalists, lawyers, newsmen, civil society members and people from different walks of life participated in the meeting.
The LBT decried the recent advertisement, published in local newspapers by the LDA, regarding the widening of the Canal Bank Road. The advertisement sought to inform the public that the previous provincial government had conceived a plan to widen each side of the Canal Road as much as 18 feet from Thokar Niaz Beg to Mustafabad, and that the environment impact assessment of the project had been approved by the Environment Protection Agency. It stated that no more than 1474 trees would be affected, but that in their place the LDA had a scheme of re-plantation.
“Nowhere in the world local governments spend money in widening roads,” said Rafay Alam, lawyer and member of LBT. He said: “Everyone in the world has woken up to the fact that automobile dependent cities are unsustainable.” Alam pointed out that Lahore had recently been recognised as being the most polluted City in Pakistan. He said that the government had allocated Rs 35 billion for education and health in the previous budget, but had allocated Rs 45 billion on the construction of roads and bridges. “Less than 20 per cent of Lahore’s population has access to cars,” said Alam, “but all our money is being spent on roads that only the automobile elite have access to. When people get sick because of the air pollution, the reason they have no good hospitals or doctors to go to is because all the government’s money is being spent on the automobile elite.”
Eram Aftab, an environment specialist, pointed out that the policy to widen the canal road was actually against the Environment Policy 2005.
“The Policy favours public transport, but in the past decade, no money has been invested in public transport.” Currently, no more than 950 buses ply on the city roads. Ms Aftab also pointed out that WWF-Pakistan had conducted its own ecological survey and had found that the EIA approved by the Environment Protection Agency, Punjab was factually flawed.
The LBT have planned a weeklong media exposure strategy to increase awareness of traffic management issues in Lahore and to make people aware of sustainable urban development.
The LBT decried the recent advertisement, published in local newspapers by the LDA, regarding the widening of the Canal Bank Road. The advertisement sought to inform the public that the previous provincial government had conceived a plan to widen each side of the Canal Road as much as 18 feet from Thokar Niaz Beg to Mustafabad, and that the environment impact assessment of the project had been approved by the Environment Protection Agency. It stated that no more than 1474 trees would be affected, but that in their place the LDA had a scheme of re-plantation.
“Nowhere in the world local governments spend money in widening roads,” said Rafay Alam, lawyer and member of LBT. He said: “Everyone in the world has woken up to the fact that automobile dependent cities are unsustainable.” Alam pointed out that Lahore had recently been recognised as being the most polluted City in Pakistan. He said that the government had allocated Rs 35 billion for education and health in the previous budget, but had allocated Rs 45 billion on the construction of roads and bridges. “Less than 20 per cent of Lahore’s population has access to cars,” said Alam, “but all our money is being spent on roads that only the automobile elite have access to. When people get sick because of the air pollution, the reason they have no good hospitals or doctors to go to is because all the government’s money is being spent on the automobile elite.”
Eram Aftab, an environment specialist, pointed out that the policy to widen the canal road was actually against the Environment Policy 2005.
“The Policy favours public transport, but in the past decade, no money has been invested in public transport.” Currently, no more than 950 buses ply on the city roads. Ms Aftab also pointed out that WWF-Pakistan had conducted its own ecological survey and had found that the EIA approved by the Environment Protection Agency, Punjab was factually flawed.
The LBT have planned a weeklong media exposure strategy to increase awareness of traffic management issues in Lahore and to make people aware of sustainable urban development.
(http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Lahore/08-Aug-2009/Meeting-to-finalise-strategy-on-raising-awareness)
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