KARACHI, Aug 10: Sindh chief minister's advisor on environment and alternative energy Noman Saigol has stressed the need for a close coordination among all provincial Environmental Protection Agencies.
Since all EPAs were implementing the same legislation and standards, coordination among them was imperative, he said while talking to journalists, government officials and NGO workers.
During his tour, he held meetings with the officers of regional Sindh EPA offices, besides representatives of the district governments of Alipur, Sadiqabad and Multan, and discussed with them common issues of environment in the two provinces.
Emphasising the need of enhanced cooperation among the provincial EPAs, Mr Saigol said: "The sharing of information is a big support for those who really want to work with minimum leakage for scrupulous use of precious resources of Pakistan."
He said since the country was a signatory to many international agreements and had ratified several treaties and protocols, an understanding of the same was essential for provincial EPAs to help conceive projects which met the requirements of the international donor agencies.
Mr Saigol said the outcome of international conferences attended by the federal environment minister envisaging the role of Pakistan in environment protection needed to be shared with the provincial EPAs.
He suggested initiation of a federal programme for dissemination of information to provincial EPAs about the country's role regarding its international obligations and requisite implementation programme.
He also emphasised the need of capacity building of Sindh EPA staff. He said that in view of the obligations of provincial EPAs under the Environment Protection Act, it was necessary to strengthen the monitoring and testing sections of EPAs.
He called his tour of Sindh and Punjab as first step towards an inter-provincial consultative process to address the environmental issues and hoped for continuity of such steps to develop a more concerted strategy for the purpose. -APP
