World Environment Day: Clean-up campaign held at Trail 5

ISLAMABAD: With the pledge to keep the federal capital clean and green during a campaign held here on Tuesday, Islamabad Deputy Mayor Syed Zeeshan Naqvi urged youth organisations to carry out environment-friendly activities at least twice a month.

The campaign “Clean today, save tomorrow” was organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI)’s Pakistan Youth Climate Network (PYCN), in connection with events marking the World Environment Day that is observed across the world on June 5 every year.

The campaign led by the deputy mayor aims to engage the youth in environment-friendly activities and to create awareness among the masses about the importance of a healthy and clean environment.

Participants joined the campaign at Trail 5 of Margalla Hills.

The deputy mayor thanked the SDPI’s PYCN and the participating students for organising the campaign and urged them to regularly organise such activities in the future.

The SDPI Senior Research Associate, Shakeel Ahmed Ramay, said that it was the responsibility of every citizen to keep the city environment and surroundings neat and clean.

The PYCN President, Yasir Dil, said that sustainable development was largely linked with the youth.

He said that the new generation should take part and lead such activities to help shape a sustainable future.

“The PYCN provides a platform to engage people in pro-environment activities, who want to bring change, he added.

The World Environment Day is an annual feature started in 1973 by the United Nations General Assembly to raise global awareness about the importance of maintaining a healthy and green environment.

This year the theme “Go Wild for Life” highlights the fight against illegal trade in wildlife, which erodes precious biodiversity and threatens the survival of elephants, rhinos and tigers, as well as many other species.

It also undermines our economies, communities, and security, a press statement by the institute said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2016.