Environmental degradation costs Pak Rs 356 billion annually

Environmental degradation costs Pakistan a staggering over Rs 356 billion annually and the government has been making "all-out endeavours" to control it, environment minister Mushahid Ullah Khan said today.
The minister said inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene accounts for Rs 112 billion, agricultural soil degradation Rs 70 billion, indoor pollution Rs 67 billion, urban air pollution Rs 65 billion, lead exposure Rs 45 billion and land degradation and deforestation Rs 6 billion of losses annually.
He further said that the government was making "all-out endeavours" to control environmental degradation.
He said access to clean drinking water and safe sanitation were central for healthy survival and overall socio-economic development of the country.

Khan said government believes in the ecologically sound socio-economic and development policies to preserve and develop the country's natural and forest resources that is key to counteracting the negative impacts of global warming.
The minister said his ministry was collaborating with all provinces to check the losses to the national economy by addressing environmental pollution, providing clean drinking water and safe sanitation, boosting tree plantation, fighting water-logging and salinity and ensuring proper waste management.
He said it was a matter of serious concern that forests on more than 40,000 hectares are cleared or chopped down every year and asked provincial forest departments to wake up to the dangers of deforestation.