With Rs394m for environment, all ‘green’ for govt

Climate change study among five other development projects planned.

KARACHI:

With rains and floods wreaking havoc in the province for two consecutive years now, the Sindh government has allocated Rs394.13 million in the new budget for half a dozen development projects in the environment sector.

The most important of the projects is an increasingly crucial study on the “Impacts of Climate Change in Sindh” that would cover all the factors leading to the massive destruction caused by rains and flooding in 2010 and 2011. Despite the urgent nature of this study, the project has a completion target in 2014 with Rs40 million set aside for it.

The highest amount of funds has been allocated for a project to strengthen the environmental monitoring system at the Environmental Protection Agency. With an estimated cost of Rs169.13 million, the project is expected to complete by June 2015.

Also among other schemes mentioned in the Annual Development Programme 2012-13 for environment is the “Environmental Awareness and Education for Protection and Conservation of Natural Resources”.

The project will be completed by June 2014 at an estimated cost of Rs100 million.

Another Rs15 million have been allocated for the “Study on E-Waste Management” and Rs10 million for the “Awareness and Preparation of Action Plan for Improving Hospital Waste Management in Public Sector Hospitals” with a completion date in June 2013.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2012.