Sustainable environmental strategy: water, food, energy security vital to poverty alleviation

BUSINESS RECORDER

RAJA AQEEL & SEHRISH WASIF
ISLAMABAD (January 13 2010): Security of water, food and energy must be the cornerstones of new world sustainable environmental strategy to achieve the goals of poverty alleviation, population control and trend of urbanisation in a meaningful manner.

The strategy aimed at making sustainable commitments, outlining how the World Bank would work with client countries to meet the environmental challenges. This was the consensus of speakers on the first day of a two-day workshop on "World Bank (WB) Group Environment Strategy and Institutional Analysis of Air Quality Management in urban Pakistan," organised by the World Bank here on Tuesday.

Speaking on the occasion, Senator Humayon Khan Mandokhel, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment, said that being an agricultural economy, "we mainly depend on natural resources and their judicious use is need of the hour." He stressed the need for strict compliance with the environment laws taking into account the economic benefit of the policies. The assistance of the World Bank, he added, had prompted the local authorities to make environment development projects sustainable.

Speaking next, Javaid Afzal, senior environment specialist of the World Bank, said that the Environment Ministry, in collaboration with the WB, was preparing technical assistance loan for implementation of National Environment Policy (NEP). This workshop is a part of the ongoing global consultations, which the WB is undertaking to prepare its new environment strategy.

He said that through this assistance, the ministry and the bank would work on institutional strengthening, setting up pilots to reduce pollution load and draw out national strategy on climate change. The WB is helping the Ministry of Industries and Production in mainstreaming environmental management with industrial processes through non-lending technical assistance.

"The Bank's Environment Strategy, formulated in 2001, was successful in mainstreaming environment into development. Our new environment strategy seeks to address persistent challenges such as environmental health and pollution management, social equity, and sustainable natural resource management, as well as the growing challenges of climate change and urbanisation," he added

Naveed Naqvi, acting WB head in Pakistan, said that sustainable development was economically, socially and environmentally sustainable and key to all strategies and policies leading to the ultimate goal of poverty alleviation. He further said that the new strategy would build on the bank's first environmental strategy, titled "Making sustainable commitments: an environment strategy for the World Bank", formulated in 2001.

That strategy outlined how the World Bank would work with the client countries to address their environmental challenges and to ensure that the projects and programmes integrated the principles of environmental sustainability. The Sindh government has also requested the World Bank to help in identifying environmental priorities and propose investment operations for their management. The urgency of addressing Pakistan's environmental problems had probably never been greater, he said.

Conservative estimates presented in the WB report suggests that environmental degradation costs the country at least six percent of the GDP or about Rs 365 billion per year, as these costs fall disproportionately upon the poor. Experts said that the most significant causes of environmental damage identified and estimated include illness and premature mortality caused by air pollution, diahorrea and typhoid due to inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene and reduced agricultural productivity due to soil degradation etc.