Islamabad, October 09, 2018 (PPI-OT): A delegation of World Bank led by Mr. Patchamuthu Illangovan, Country Director called on the federal minister /Advisor to PM on climate change Malik Amin Aslam Khan here at Islamabad today (Tuesday). Ms. Amena Raja Operations Officer, Mr. Lixin Gu, Program Leader, Mr. Kamran Akbar, Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist, and Mr. Ahsan Tehsin, Disaster Risk Management Specialist were the part of the delegation. Both sides discussed the areas of mutual interest including cooperation in different plans to deal with climate change hazards.
The delegates said that quality of life in number of areas in South Asia including Pakistan is dropping due to harsh temperature and other climate changes and World Bank is especially focusing to mitigate these growing environmental issues. Minister apprised the delegates that environment is the foremost priority agenda of our government and we are rigorously pursuing it since the day one.
We have already initiated ten billion tsunami tree plantation drive a month ago and now we have launched a clean green Pakistan initiative to bring behavioural changes amongst the people in accordance with the vision of PM. Unfortunately Pakistan is amongst those top seven countries which are badly affected with climate changes. Our agriculture sector is facing bad effects of these climate changes too. Growing seasons have been shifted.
Minister further said that our clean green Pakistan initiative has a special focus on five major areas which include Plantation, solid waste management, liquid waste management, availability of clean drinking water as 42% people of Pakistanis don’t have access to Clean water and hygiene. The delegates informed the Minister that World Bank is running a Green development program in collaboration with Punjab government to deal with the pollution issues. The delegates expressed their willingness to cooperate with the Ministry of climate change to deal with the solid waste management, agriculture and water related issues.
Federal Minister /Advisor to PM on climate change said that Water wastage is another gigantic problem which Pakistan is facing. We had no proper strategy to store flooded waters but our government in accordance with the vision of PM “Clean Green Pakistan” will certainly channelise flooded water and will aptly use wet lands for this purpose. Our biggest dilemma is that we do have water but not adequately stored or properly managed. Federal Minister /Advisor to PM on climate change said that Water wastage is another gigantic problem which Pakistan is facing.
We had no proper strategy to store flooded waters but our government in accordance with the vision of PM “Clean Green Pakistan” wills certainly channelise flooded water and will aptly use wet lands for this purpose. Under “Recharge Pakistan” project Malik Amin Aslam Khan said that unfortunately, our previous governments have paid no heed towards better hygiene.
Our 43% population doesn’t have access to toilets. We have to create open defecation free environment by encouraging people to build toilets. Malik Amin Aslam Khan said that our North glaciers are melting and posing serious threats therefore we will introduce an early warning system to avoid disasters. We are committed to provide clean and green Pakistan to our next generations as envisioned by the Prime Minister.
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