PESHAWAR
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Government on Thursday formed an ‘oversight and implementation committee’ in a bid to monitor and tackle the challenge of growing pollution in the provincial capital.
The decision was taken by the provincial cabinet in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan.
Addressing a post cabinet meeting, the provincial minister for higher education Kamran Bangash said the cabinet approved formation of a committee to oversee pollution combating developments in Peshawar.
The committee would be composed of three Ministers including Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Ishtiaq Khan Urmar and Kamran Bangash.
Three Members of Provincial Assembly elected from Peshawar as well as Secretaries of relevant departments and the Environmental Authority will also be part of the committee.
The committee will undertake visits of different industrial units established in district Peshawar and Khyber to collect data pertaining to pollution on an experimental basis, Mr Kamran added.
He said that the provincial department will ensure to check vehicles emissions and maintain quality standard, adding a comprehensive awareness campaign will be launched in the media to provide a clean and pollution free environment to the people of Peshawar.
According to ‘ Status of Air Pollution in Peshawar’ a study report produced by the Peshawar Clean Air Alliance (PCAA) that Peshawar lacked real-time ambient air monitoring and has no authentic data collection system to gage its pollution level.
The report said that transport, industry, domestic solid waste fuel usage, municipal waste and dust are major driving forces contributing to growing air pollution in Peshawar.
The report said that the transport sector has been determined to be the highest contributor of air pollution in Peshawar, followed by the dust and re-suspended dust, domestic sector, industry, waste burning and commercial sector.
