Asian Green City Index: Karachi ranked 'well below average'

Karachi is the only city, which has been ranked well below average in 'Asian Green City Index', which measured and rated the environmental performance of 22 Asian cities under eight quantitative indicators.
The 'Asian Green City Index', a research project by the economist intelligence unit of Siemens, launched here on Monday at a press conference, showed that urban population in Asia is increasing by 37 million each year, and so does the challenge on environmental front.
Karachi was ranked well below in all indicators considered as prerequisite for better environment. The city's performance was below average in the energy and CO2, land use and buildings, transport, waste water, sanitation, air quality and environment governance in comparison with other Asian cities including Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengluru (Banglore), Beijing, Bangkok, Manila, etc.
Karachi has been marked down for absence of environmental standard for waste disposal sites and for not enforcing standards for industrial hazardous waste or encouraging proper waste management by the residents. The waste collection is neither done in a properly organised manner nor is being separated before collection.
Lack of public transport and poorly managed private transport system in the city was the second indicator responsible for placing the city on well below average on this account. The transport system consists of minibuses and coaches and has not been operating on fixed routes. The over-reliance on cars has badly congested the roads.
Equally bad performance of the city was on the fourth quantitative measure of water consumption. In this category, Karachi was, however, ranked in the list of average countries with relatively lower water consumption per person--at 165 litres per day--compared to the index average of 278 litres. The city suffers from a relatively high rate of leakage of about 24 percent of water compared to index average of 22 percent.
On the criterion of energy and CO2, Karachi was also among the low ranking countries with average level of CO2 per person--at an estimated 3.1 tons--compared to the index average of 4.6 tons. The city was considered 'inefficient' in terms of energy efficiency, consuming higher than the index average.
The poor enforcement of existing planning regulations in terms of land use and building ranked the city below average on this account as the amount of spaces--at 17 square metres per person--is far below the index average of 39 squares metres. The city was stated to be partially protect the green spaces through regulation.
The 'Asian Green City Award' was won by Singapore, and member of the Managing Board of the Siemens, Barbra Kux, addressing the press conference prior to the handing over of the award to Dr Amy Khor Lean, stated that the share of Asian population living in urban areas had grown from 32 percent in 1990 to 24 percent in 2010 and this unprecedented shift from rural areas to urban cities warrants for integrated planning through advance technology for sustainable development.
She said that challenges facing the people in the future, especially in the cities, would be enormous as the trend towards urbanisation, particularly in Asia, raises the question that how the soaring population could be provided infrastructure that conserve resources and protect the climate. She said that technology innovation is key for Asian cities to find and pursue the best path towards a future that is both climate-friendly and worth living. Technologies to transmit electricity more efficiently and use energy more economically could be very helpful for making cities more sustainable, she added.