TAKING yet another important initiative towards environment conservation and sustainability, Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday launched the Clean Green Pakistan Index Cities Ranking which will encourage competition amongst the cities on various environmental indicators including public access to drinking water, safe sanitation, effective solid waste management and tree plantation.
Pakistan is ranked amongst the top vulnerable countries to climate change and the way our successive governments ignored this subject and cut the green cover whilst developing the infrastructure, it has now become imperative to take the requisite steps and that too on an urgent basis to provide a safe and secure environment to our present and future generations. It is heartening to note that incumbent PM Imran Khan, from day one in office, is giving special emphasis to the issue of environment. His latest innovative initiative of holding competition amongst the cities for environment protection indeed is a step in the right direction which will motivate the cities’ administration to take environment friendly steps. The element of competition and race for getting better ranking than the other cities will indeed go a long way in transforming our cities which has turned into concrete slabs over the last few decades. Those getting better ranking will be given special funds by the federal and provincial governments. In the first phase, 19 city governments from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) will take part in the competition and we are confident that this will be further expanded to other cities in the days to come. Apart from tree plantation, time warrants to give special emphasis to the solid waste management not only in big cities but also in the rural areas as they equally deserve better facilities. This will also help in reducing migration from rural areas to the urban centres. By reducing this migration rate, a lot of problems currently faced by the cities can also be waned away. These eco-friendly initiatives of PTI are also being recognized worldwide and one saw its manifestation a few days back when the country was elected as the co-chair for the Green Climate Fund – the largest international climate change fund which has committed over $ 7 billion since 2015 and has secured additional funding of over $ 9.8 billion till 2023. Being its co-chair, Pakistan can now easily secure funds for its environment related projects. So lack of funds should not be any matter for PTI government in executing clean and green initiative.
