In a bid to freshen its air and cut planet-warming emissions, the Pakistani port city of Karachi is to introduce cleaner buses powered by a decidedly “unclean” fuel: cow dung.
With funding from the international Green Climate Fund, Karachi is to launch a carbon neutral Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network, with 200 buses fueled by biogas.
Residents said that the new bus system — due to start operating next year — would help reduce air pollution and street noise, but doubted whether it would have enough buses to resurrect the city’s ailing transport system.
Karachi’s “public transport system has totally collapsed and most people have to use online taxi-hailing services [and] auto rickshaws,” said commuter Afzal Ahmed, 45, who works as a medical sales representative.
After management problems forced the Karachi Transport Corp to fold about two decades ago, Chinese-imported buses running on compressed natural gas fell into disrepair and were taken off the road, worsening public transport woes, he added.
Malik Amin Aslam, adviser on climate change to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, said that the BRT system is the first transport project the Green Climate Fund has approved, and would bring “multiple environmental and economic benefits.”
It would not require operating subsidies, he added.
LOW EMISSIONS
The cheap, clean bus network would cater for 320,000 passengers daily, and would reduce planet-warming emissions by 2.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over 30 years, according to project documents.
The BRT is to consist of a 30km corridor that would benefit 1.5 million residents, adding 25 new bus stations, secure pedestrian crossings, improved sidewalks, cycle lanes and bike-sharing facilities.
The Green Climate Fund, set up during UN climate talks to provide finance to developing countries to help them grow cleanly and adapt to a warming climate, would provide US$49 million for the Karachi project out of a total cost of US$583.5 million.
The other major funders are the Asian Development Bank and the government of Sindh Province, where Karachi is located.
The BRT system, to be rolled out over four years, would have a fleet of 200 hybrid buses that would run on bio-methane produced from manure excreted by Karachi’s 400,000 milk-producing water buffaloes and collected by the authorities.
The project would prevent about 3,200 tonnes of cow manure from entering the ocean daily by converting it into energy and fertilizer at a biogas plant, and would save more than 189,000 liters of fresh water now used to wash that waste into the bay, Aslam said.
Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, chief executive officer of Leadership for Environment and Development Pakistan, a policy think tank, said that calculating the overall effects on the environment is difficult, as the buses would be introduced in stages.
Pakistani authorities often lack maintenance budgets, hightening the risk that the buses could break down and not be repaired, he said.
“Pakistan has a history that it does not utilize donors’ project funding at an optimum level,” he said.
However, if all goes well, Sheikh said that the project, as the country’s first green BRT system, would lay the foundation for “climate-smart urban transportation systems” in other places.
NEW APPROACH
The BRT could shake up approaches to public transport among policymakers and planners, serving as a model for other cities, including Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and Faisalabad, he said.
Pakistan needs to launch such projects in big cities to discourage personal vehicle use, thereby easing traffic emissions and smog, and improving air quality and public health, Sheikh added.
He recommended setting a target for 70 percent of the urban population to use public transport.
Another way to ease air pollution would be to import better-quality petroleum fuels for vehicles, he added.
“We are importing low-grade fuel, and our refineries have capacity to refine only third-grade fuel,” he said.
Ahmad Rafay Alam, an environmental lawyer, said that previous BRT projects in Pakistan’s large cities have not focused on environmental sustainability.
Planners should start connecting transport systems with wider urban development, Alam said.
“We need to introduce transport-oriented urban design by encouraging the use of public transport and discouraging the use of private vehicles to reduce emissions,” he said.
Zia Ur Rehman, a Karachi-based journalist covering civic issues, said that the Sindh provincial government has run less than 50 buses in the city over the past 10 years, while private buses and mini-buses have dwindled from 25,000 to 8,000.
One reason is that buses have been torched during strikes and at times of political upheaval, he said.
The new bus system alone is unlikely to resolve the city’s transport problems, he said.
However, it could be “a short-term relief for commuters and also help in reducing... air pollution,” he added.
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