ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul on Wednesday said with the ban on single-use plastic bags would go a long way in making Pakistan greener as it would rid the market of an estimated 55 billion bags each year.

Speaking to participants of an event held at a local hotel she said: “We are seeing a massive rural-urban migration, coupled with rapid urbanisation.”

But as our growing population occupies new spaces in urban areas, it lacks the understanding of living in harmony with nature; so we continue to damage our environment through uncontrolled and mismanaged waste disposal, she said.

The project titled ‘Women Entrepreneurship Development’ launched by Oxfam Pakistan and Hashoo Foundation to address the country’s plastic bag pollution crisis and to explore sustainable solutions to counter its effects by engaging and empowering women entrepreneurs.

The event was attended by government officials, academics, entrepreneurs, media, social development experts, civil society and corporate organisations.

Ms Gul said the ban was part of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s clean and green Pakistan initiative which started last year.

Addressing the audience, Hashoo Foundation’s Project Head Sohail Bangash explained the rationale behind the cloth bags pilot project.

“We jointly conceptualised and designed the project to develop the skills of women entrepreneurs and enhance their employment opportunities by providing them with the platform to design, produce and market cloth bags as an alternative to single-use plastic bags,” he said.

Speaking at the event, Oxfam in Pakistan’s Country Director Mohammed Qazilbash said, “Economic development isn’t possible without women’s contribution, especially when it comes to addressing societal issues through social enterprises.

It is therefore, crucial to facilitate and support women in their endeavours to achieve higher levels of economic productivity through innovation and entrepreneurship.”

Hashoo Foundation’s Board of Trustees member Shah Khawar said: “We aim to empower Women Entrepreneurs (WEs) to leverage their full potential, creativity and working knowledge of business development, and to improve their access to learning and training opportunities, and to help them polish their entrepreneurial skills and establish useful networks in the process.”

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2019