KARACHI: The Karachi Citizens` Forum (KCF) organised a seminar at the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) House here on Friday to look into `a holistic approach to solving the problem of Karachi`s crumbling infrastructure and its disastrous toll on human health and the city`s beleaguered ecosystem`.

While providing some background on the matter, KCF convenor Nargis Rahman said that Karachi had been degrading. `According to the Global Liveability Index for 2023, out of 173 unlivable cities of the world, Karachi is 169th. And the saddest part in this is that we accept it,` she said.

`We hear that the city`s infrastructure is crumbling. The reality is that it has crumbled already. At present, there are 21 autonomous bodies running this city. It is just like the case of too many cooks. Therefore, there is a need for a collaboration, a cohesion with an apex committee to be headed by a retired justice of the Supreme Court appointed by the centre to ensure good governance,` she suggested.

In his presentation on the `Polluted environment and health issues in Karachi`, secre-tary general of PMA (Centre), Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro spoke about allergies and breathing problems, chest ailments, stomach ailments, waterborne and airborne diseases, stress, anxiety, insomnia and mental health issues.

`Air pollution is the single largest environmental health risk and a major cause of premature death and disease,` Dr Shoro pointed out, adding that there was a need to plant more trees and conserve the remaining forests in order to improve air quality.

He also stressed the need for setting up a proper sewage treatment and management system.

`The government must take steps to ban individuals and companies from disposing of their waste and rubbish into lakes, rivers and oceans,` he said.

Dean, Faculty of Architecture and Sciences at the NED University of Engineering and Technology, Dr Noman Ahmed said that the people here considered Karachi for its size though there were also so many communities and ethnicities living here.

`We have a biggest population in this biggest city of our country. In fact, we have onethird of Sindh`s population here. And Sindh has one-fourth of Pakistan`s population. It is not like that for Lahore, which only has one12th of Punjab`s population living there,` Dr Noman pointed out.

He also said that there was a constant influx of people in Karachi. `They are not just coming here for jobs but also for whatever education or health facilities the city offers,` he said before going on talking aboutthe many infrastructure projects that were not really doing what was thought they would do.

He said that the signal-free corridor was one such project along with flyovers and underpasses said to end road congestion.

`But they could not end the congestion, they could only shift it elsewhere,` he said.

He said that the People`s Bus Service was another project, which was the latest of several other public bus services introduced by the provincial government, which failed eventually.

`Do understand that any government-run bus service is temporary. Already so many of the red People Buses are out of order and awaiting spare parts,` he said.

He also spoke about the Lyari and Malir expressways that resulted in uprooting and relocating of people, which could have been avoided.

`The mistakes made in the construction of the Lyari Expressway are now being repeated with the Malir Expressway,` he added.

Architect and environmentalist Tariq Alexander Qaiser said that most of Karachi`s problems were man-made. `They are because of no checks and balances. Also we here talk about the problems more than we talk about the solutions to our problems,` he said.

He said that the people of Karachi were going to face a crisis in health as will their coming generations if nothing was done to save the environment.

He pointed out the biggest quality of Karachi its fresh sea breeze is not the same. `Our sea breeze was full of oxygen. It used to rejuvenate us. But it is not the same anymore. The two main reasons for this is the diminishing of phytoplankton due to the channelling of untreated waste into our sea and the cutting of the mangroves on our coastline. Both these were major sources of oxygen,` he said. He suggested remedying the problem by spreading awareness about it.

Former Secretary General Centre PMA, Dr Qaiser Sajjad, also spoke.