We often hear governments, International Organisations, environmentalists clamour resources are running up and we also hear about Sustainable Development and UNSDG’s. We also experience the absence of gas in our homes to light stove specially during winter. We also hear that there is going to be acute shortage of drinking water in coming decades.
First of all, lets briefly understand the concept of Sustainable Development.
The term “Sustainable Development” was first of all coined by Barbara Ward, founder of International Institute for Environment and Development in 1970s.
United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development define the term “Sustainable Development” as;
“Development that meets the needs of the present world without compromising the
ability of the future generations to meet their needs”
Sustainable Resource Development is a vital concept in this age. We know that World’s population is growing exponentially. Robert Malthus was a Sociologist who presented a theory named “Population Explosion”. He argued that with the advancement of Science and Technology, the life expectancy has increased and consequently the population is increasing day by day with big leaps.
Such explosion of population has raised serious concerns for the Governments and International Organisation as to how is humanity to face the potential problems that it is going to encounter in future and how are we to deal with the ever-growing need of vitalities of human.
Pakistan is one of the countries which is facing the grave problem of population. While the population is increasing on a rapid pace, the resources are being exhausted with a speed never expected before. There is a huge number of youth who are suffering from the unemployment. The case is so caliginous, youth is pushed in psychological stress. To worsen the situation, Corona Virus has forced many industries to shut down or cut their expenses and consequently labour force is being laid down.
As a result, the government has to provide subsidies, initiate welfare projects and since there is no extra money in public exchequer, the resources are being exploited very dangerously.
Pakistan, like many other countries, is required to overcome many challenges to meet the goals set by UNSDGs’. We remember when Imran Khan launched a campaign of planting Billion Tree Tsunami, he was noticed to have said repeatedly that he was facing with timber mafia and it was one of the strong mafias.
Such is the case with other sustainable development goals. First of all, we do not realise the seriousness of the issue because majority of Pakistan’s population is kept unaware and those who have knowledge about it, remain silent on the issue.
Pakistan has great potential to meet sustainable development needs as we have glaciers like Baltoro, Batura, Gondokoro. Similarly Pakistan has very dense and old forests like Juniper and Changa-manga which can provide great resources of fuel and fruits. These can be used to enhance our economic development. Forests have critical role to play in terms of Sustainable development, they contain soil-erosion from agricultural fields to maintain climate. Wild Honey is a very essential part of economics and it can be found abundantly in the forests only.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has been a great advocate of sustainable development and he has called himself as an “Environmentalist” during United Nations Speech.
Renewal of the energy, of water and other resources are corner-stone of sustainable development. There are various ways we can maintain the sustainable development providing the Government takes serious steps. Such easy are the tasks that one can use the resources in a sustainable manner and can save money as well.
I was once attending a training workshop and a trainer informed that she did not use sui gas and she generated her own gas from dung of her cows and buffaloes. She had made a stove out of dung and it was sufficient to meet the gas necessity for her domestic use.
Not only that she used it for herself but she helped others to make them those stove and thus many of families were independent of sui-gas.
Similarly, we all are familiar with Solar energy. It is mean time Government subsidised the solar panels and facilitated the people to get them installed at their homes. This would not only help the people from getting rid off of hefty electricity bills but it would also decrease the burden on national grid. Solar Panels are so easy to establish and one hardly needs to repair them once in a year.
Similarly, the water that is used in homes can be recycled. The water used to wash our floors can be used for garden. This way we can plant trees and water them. The water that drips off the Split air-conditioners can be stored in a tank and can be used for various washable purposes and so is the case with water used in car wash.
We do not need to think of the huge, expensive ways for using the water sustainably. Imagine if the pipe of your washing sink drains your water in your toilet flush. You wont need to use the clean water for this purpose. Used water can best serve the purpose. Simply we have to attach the flushing tanks with the pipes of our sink water or that of shower.
For cities like Karachi, which receives heavy pour during monsoons, this water can be used in a very productive way if we have proper drainage systems. In America, the gutters have a sieve attached which prevents the garbage flown with water and the clean water of rain is pushed towards a pool nearby which can be used for watering the public garden, for washing the roads, for washing cars or heavy vehicles which otherwise use gallons of clean water while people face great scarcity of water for domestic purposes.
These are just examples of how two of the resources i.e. sunlight and water can be recycled. If we ponder more and if the Governments take the matter seriously, Pakistan can avoid many of its problems pertaining to resources.