By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: With a manifold rise in mental health issues following the coronavirus outbreak, the need for more parks and other recreational facilities has increased for the residents of Federal Capital.
According to health experts, parks with their green surface covered with trees and flower beds contribute enormously to the psychological well-being of the humans, who have been adversely impacted by the contagion with limited recreational opportunities and mobility restrictions in place.
The number of mental health cases in the Capital had gone up by 100 per cent after the outbreak of COVID-19, compounded with a limited number of parks and green places, which were also in shabby conditions, the experts said. No new park has been built in the urban areas during the last decade while the rural areas are completely deprived of the facility.
“It is a high time for the city managers to set up more parks and green places in the urban and rural areas of Islamabad to cope with the mental health issues being faced by its dwellers particularly in the wake of coronavirus pandemic,” Raja Khurram Nawaz, a local Member of the National Assembly (MNA), said passionately.
Talking to APP on Sunday, he said there were over 230 small parks in sectoral areas of Islamabad, which remained deserted to their dilapidated conditions.
