Environmental terrorism in Peshawar
Editorial
Apart from other types of terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, particularly Peshawar, eco-terrorism is on peak, and besides the uncontrolled and unchecked industrial units, private educational institutions are playing a major role in aggressively polluting the environment of the provincial metropolis – which was used to call as the ‘the city of flowers’ in the past.
As mentioned above, the buses and other transportation vehicles of the 95 percent private educational institutions, including schools, colleges and universities, are aging, diesel-run and below the transportation standard, badly damaging and degrading the environment which has a direct adverse effect on public health.
According to reports, these buses are hundreds in number and extremely old – majority are 40-50 years old but still running on the roads without any proper scientific examination and check by the authorities concerned, raising question on the ‘system’ that is it for public safety, or, protecting this mafia in the form of private educational institutions?
It is worth to mention that these educational organizations charge millions of rupees from their students on account of transportation fee every month, but they do not bother to provide better and comfortable transportation services to them as well as to safeguard the environment by purchasing new buses, while their present transportation vehicles have become extremely dangerous by releasing highly black smoke – causing respiratory diseases to people.
One thing more, Peshawar has been declared the 10th most polluted city of the world in the World Air Quality Report 2023 that fully describes the deteriorated and miserable situation of the existing environment in the provincial capital by putting the precious lives of the public at risk as breathing in such a polluted air is not recommended for human health.
Although, this issue has been highlighted few years back, but no action has taken yet, therefore, it is high time for the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and its departments, including education, environment and health, and the provincial government agencies i.e. Environmental Protection Agency, Private Schools Regulatory Authority and Higher Education Regulatory Authority, to take serious notice of this burning issue and devise an effective and sustainable strategy to control this alarming situation in larger public interest.
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