PESHAWAR, July 28: Provincial Minister for Finance and Environment Shah Raz Khan has urged NGOs to create awareness among the masses about hazards of environmental degradation and mobilise them to make efforts for cleanliness of their areas on self-help basis.

He was speaking at a ceremony organised to distribute cheques among three NGOs for launching projects for protection, rehabilitation and improvement of environment. The ceremony was held at a committee room of the Environment Protection Agency, NWFP.

The three NGOs, Rural Community Support Programme, Participatory Community Programme and the Sarhad Safari Adventure Society, received cheques of Rs363,000, Rs 273,000 and Rs364,000, respectively. The projects the NGOs will initiate include construction of 25 in-house latrines in the Samarbagh village of Lower Dir and providing clean drinking water from a community filtration plant and a solid waste management and sanitation campaign in Nathia Gali.

Shah Raz said the provincial government was involving NGOs in all sectors.

Environment secretary Noorul Haq said the objective of environmental protection would be achieved by involving communities through NGOs.

EPA director-general Dr Mohammad Bashir said the government had set up a Provincial Sustainable Development Fund for providing assistance to NGOs in launching environmental protection projects. He said the NWFP was the only province which had established such a fund. —APP