Cleanliness drive to begin before Ramazan

Senate panel resolves to ban plastic bottles on the premises of the climate ministry

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to turn the federal capital into an environment-friendly city. The Ministry of Climate Change and other stakeholders have started to take practical measures for this transformation with cleanliness and awareness campaigns scheduled on either side of Ramazan.

According to the plans for this transformation, the ministry is planning a large-scale plantation campaign under which fruit and flower bearing trees will be planted which will not only make the city green but naturally colourful as well.

For this purpose, ministry officials shared that earlier in the month, they had held a ‘Plant for Islamabad’ day in the city with support from the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) and the Capital Development Authority (CDA). In the campaign, over a hundred thousand saplings were planted in the city.

Moreover, the city authorities have decided to make Islamabad a plastic-free city. On the directions of the Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change, the climate change ministry took the initiative by making its offices completely free of single-use plastics. The standing committee also got rid of all single-use plastics.

The committees had resolved to ban plastic bottles in the premises of the climate ministry. In the second phase, all government buildings in Islamabad will be made plastic-free.

An awareness campaign on the environmental hazards of plastic bags and other single-use plastics is expected to be launched in the city after the holy month of Ramazan ends.

Apart from informing the public about the hazards of plastic bags, the campaigners are expected to distribute recyclable bags made from fabric.

Further, the city’s civic administrators and the ministry has decided to clear Islamabad of all garbage and other pollutants.

In this regard, the climate change ministry, with support from the CDA and the IMC is expected to launch a cleanliness drive in the first week of May during which they collect garbage which has been dumped at various points of the city.

Moreover, waste dumping sites will be designated to help the public easily dispose of their wastes and garbage properly.

The ministry has also decided to ensure the provision of clean water for the citizens. Under the plan, effluents and sewerage draining into the Rawal and Samli dams will be first filtered for pollutants for which the authorities have already been given approval for two treatment plants.

Further, ministry officials said that to maximize the use of green energy, all government buildings in the federal capital will see solar panels installed in open areas, including roofs along the same lines as the solar panels which were installed in the Parliament House.

The climate change ministry is eyeing the Zoological Survey of Pakistan building, an institution which operates under the ministry, to shit to solar power.

Further, the plan will see the authorities install smoke-control systems at factories in the federal capital to control the pollutants they spew into the air.

The city’s road infrastructure will also be improved for which the master plan is already under review.