June 4, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, June 3: Federal Minister of State for Environment Mohammad Tahir Iqbal has said water filtration projects will soon be launched to provide clean drinking water to the residents of the Capital Territory Islamabad.

The state minister for environment was speaking as chief guest at a declamation contest held at the Islamabad Model College for Boys, F-7/3, in connection with the World Environment Day, on Tuesday.

Under the project, eight to 10 filtration plants will be installed at various points in the capital to provide clean drinking water to the public.

He also announced that the Pakistan Green Task Force had given consent to provide three small water filtration plants to be set up at three schools including IMCB, F-7/3. Two of the winner schools in the declamation contest will also get a filter plant each.

Speaking to the students on the World Environment Day that calls for the sustainable approaches to water usage, the minister urged them to learn more about the importance of water.

He maintained that for the benefit of future generation the availability of safe drinking water was the most important element.

Mr Iqbal said with assistance of the Asian Development Bank, the government would also install effluents treatments plants in major cities of the country.

“Industrial progress is a key factor for a country’s development but it is also moral and legal obligation of the industrialists to install treatment plants for effluents,” the minister said.

Commenting on the importance of a balanced and justifiable approach for conservation of water, the minister advised children to conserve water at homes and also educate their parents to make sure that the world’s precious resource—water—is used responsibly.

Speaking on the occasion, Sheikh Ghazanfar Hussain, additional secretary at the ministry of environment, said: “This year’s theme called on each one of us to help safeguard the most precious source of life on planet earth.”

The declamation contest was jointly organized by the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (PEPA) and the National Environment Action Plan supported by the United Nations Development Programme.

PEPA director general Asif S. Khan and Abdul Qadir Rafique of UNDP also attended the event.

The finalists of the declamation contest were Furqan Shafi of the OPF Boys College, H-9 and Nida Farrukh of the Islamabad College for Girls, F-8/1. The finalists would participate in the national level contest scheduled for June 5.