Online Petition Launched To Garner Public Support For Making Air Of Peshawar Pollution Free

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Jun, 2021 ) :Peshawar Clean Air Alliance (PCAA), a newly formed alliance of civil society activists, academia, researchers, environment, health experts, media and policy making representatives, on Thursday has launched an online petition to garner public support for combating pollution.

The online petition hopes to collect over 10,000 signatures of general public and then will submit it to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly standing committee on climate change and environment to solicit support of assembly members to present Clean Air Bill KP to be passed by the legislatures, informed Dr. Adil Zareef, founding member and spokesperson for the alliance.

Talking with APP, Dr. Adil informed that within five days of online launching of the petition, the document received signatures from 800 people, who also shared their concerns in comments over increasing level of air pollution in the provincial metropolis.

"The people are appreciating the initiative and wanted to extend support to us in our effort of making air of Peshawar clean and pollution free," he apprised APP.

Peshawar is currently ranked as the fifth most polluted city in the country with unhealthy air quality days increasing every year, reads the petition which can be reached through its link (http://chng.it/6MCWVzsh).

An overwhelming evidence of negative health impacts is observed as number of patients showing symptoms of respiratory &.

cardiac diseases, psychological, skin and eye problems, dementia and premature deaths is increasing across the city and countrywide, the petition's content further reads.

This situation calls for a public health emergency requiring immediate action by the government through effective policy making and a pragmatic approach towards implementation of measures to mitigate air pollution, it added.

The Peshawar Air Alliance, Dr. Adil continued, aims to provide systematic support in identifying the major polluters, spatial coverage of pollutants, health and environmental impacts as well as strategic strategies to curtail emissions on policy level in support of KP government which has shown tremendous interest in climate change issues.

This is first of our efforts against air pollution in the country and we hope to extend it to other cities in future with support of people. We have on our panel renowned environmental experts including Rafay Alam Khan who is country team leader, he expressed.

PCAA's vision is to increase the total number of clean air days in Peshawar to over 100 a year by 2025, primarily by cutting levels of air pollution at source, while simultaneously encouraging behavioral changes within us, he added.