Youth environmental complaints in bahawalpur city, pakistan: An informational intervention for local environmental governance

Abstract

The paper comprises the concept of environmental governance, and the role played by institutions and citizens particularly youth dealing with environmental problems complaints. It represents an initial attempt to construct a fresh approach to the field of environmental governance by considering youth complaints as an important source of information for the management authorities. Local organizations and institutions are considered in order to collect information about the number and types of complaints regarding environmental problems. Moreover, the resolved and unresolved complaints data is also collected through Tehsil Municipal Administration complaints cell and particular actions are analysed. The complaints submitted by citizens are categorized on the basis of age structure. Results clearly show the interest of youth regarding environmental problems as well as the local authorities response of these complaints are recorded in the through textual interviews results. The submitted complaints made it very easy for the authorities to analyse the environmental problems at union council level and resolved complaints shows the attention of local authorities towards these problems. Youth as being educated and most active part of the community can play its vital role in this process. Youth, by its participation can make this complaint process an important avenue for community participation in environmental governance and policies. The paper tries to build a new idea about youth involvement by analysing their interests in the city related environmental problems. It gives an approach of developing collaboration between youth community and municipality for better planning concerning the problems of the city.