KARACHI, June 24: The Sindh government has allocated Rs1.5 million for public awareness and environmental education, in urban and rural areas of the province, in its budget 2004-05.

As much as Rs8 million has been allocated in the new provincial budget for one ongoing and four new schemes of the Environment and Alternative Energy Department.

The government had planned to give Rs6 million to the environmental department for carrying out new schemes, while no allocation had been made for district governments for any project.

According to budgetary documents, Rs2 million were allocated for survey and preventive measures against Arsenic contamination in underground water in Sindh. However, the documents did not show any physical progress, while it was understood that the said amount was not made available to the department.

A new scheme, at an estimated cost of Rs1.5 million, pertained to environmental study on hospital waste management for one major public sector hospital and one private hospital.

An amount of Rs2 million had been allocated for a new scheme of hygienic ground water management in Thar, and another Rs1 million had been allocated for assessment of drinking water quality in Karachi, Hyderabad and Kotri.