BADIN: Federal secretary for climate change Syed Abu Ahmad Akif has said that Sindh’s coastal belt faces environmental degradation and stressed the need for concerted efforts to fight climate change and its negative impacts on peoples’ socio-economic condition.

Members of civil society, journalists and social activists would have to play their role to highlight issues of Badin and other parts of lower Sindh which were caused by climate change and environmental degradation, he said.

The federal secretary was briefing journalists at Badin Gymkhana on Saturday on his visit to several villages of the coastal belt of the district.

He said the federal government was making sincere efforts to cope with climate change and its effects and said it was the need of the hour to focus on sensitive environmental issues, particularly of Sindh’s coastal belt, which was badly affected by environmental degradation.

He advised people to cooperate with the government and save themselves from the vagaries of climatic change and its effects on their lives and livelihood, disasters and degradation since Pakistan was facing consequences of climate change.

Masood Ahmed Lohar, national coordinator of UNDP’s Jeff Small Grants Programme Pakistan, briefed the secretary on the projects being funded by the organisation in the region.

Mr Lohar said that there was a need to encourage people engaged in creating awareness about climate change and its terrible impact on human lives.

Environmentalists Afia Salam, Shabina Faraz and others accompanied the secretary during his visit and the press briefing.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2017