LAHORE:Federal Tax Ombudsman (FTO) Coordinator Saif Ur Rehman said on Sunday that protecting wetlands in Pakistan is a practical defence against climate breakdown, economic insecurity and ecological collapse.
Addressing a seminar held here in connection with World Wetlands Day, he suggested the government to strengthen enforcement against encroachment, ensure environmental impact assessments are credible and transparent, and integrate wetland conservation into provincial land-use planning.Equally vital is restoring environmental flows to the Indus Delta so that mangroves can survive in the long term, he added.
The FTO Coordinator said, Pakistan had repeatedly been battered by catastrophic floods; therefore, investing in wetland restoration should be central to disaster management planning instead of treating the wetlands as wasteland.Beyond the coast, he mentioned, Pakistan’s wetlands are under mounting stress, because urban encroachment, industrial effluent, solid waste dumping and ill-planned infrastructure projects have degraded lakes such as Manchhar and Haleji.
