According to the DC of Peshawar, the Clean and Neat Peshawar campaign is set to begin on December 12. It will entail awareness walks, sensitivity training on pollution effects, and cleanliness drives. While this is a good initiative by the city administration to tackle escalating pollution and subsequent problems in the city, this effort will need to be more sustainable than at present.
Just last week, Peshawar’s Air Quality Index readings showed that the air has been hazardous for citizen welfare. With a distinction of 590 on the AQI, it was ranked as the most dangerous air quality city in the world. Not only is this development shocking, but it shows how high risk the situation is. Against such climate indicators, it is about time that such a campaign is launched. Hopefully, if citizens are made aware of the circumstances that they are living in, a bottom-up drive can be initiated to confront the issue.
However, it must be noted that Peshawar has seen multiple campaigns as such in the last year. In February, the KP minister for local government and rural development also inaugurated the Clean Green Peshawar campaign to plant spring trees. Likewise, under the Billion Tree Tsunami, many tree plantation drives were accommodated. The sustainability of such approaches must be questioned, therefore, as recent indicators show little to no progress in city cleanliness.
A sense of civic responsibility and participation is needed to drive the sustainability of these campaigns. Without public participation and benevolent ownership of the masses, no campaign can be successful. Likewise, these efforts need to be all year round instead of being localised around an event or specific time. Not only is living in a polluted city hazardous to health but is also a breach of fundamental rights. These physiological needs are essential to every citizen and should thus be a priority for public action. Therefore, such campaigns must be complemented with improved public transport options, green policing and laws, and sustained cleaning drives.