KARACHI, April 4: Federal Environment Minister Amin Aslam Khan on Monday said that the government had embarked upon Rs300 million project aimed at provision of clean drinking water to everyone in the country. Under this project, he said, a water filtration plant would be set up initially in every ‘tehsil’. The minister pointed out that the prime minister was heading this clean drinking water initiative which would be led by the ministries of science and technology, health and environment.

Amin Aslam said that the project had already been approved and the first allocation of Rs15 million had been released. He further stated that the work on the project, being funded by federal government, would start by July. It had been decided that the first plant would be set up in Hyderabad, he added.

“Our target is to ensure the provision of clean drinking water to every Pakistani,” he remarked adding that the goal would be pursued through a step-by-step approach.

Referring to the environment monitoring programme, he said that Rs1.3 billion project would be taken up with the Japanese grant. Under this programme, he said, ambient air would be monitored so as to determine the baseline. He stated that this project was going into the implementation stage with the assistance of the JICA. The project would be completed in two years. In the first stage, monitoring stations would be set up in Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Quetta and Karachi.

Amin Aslam expressed hope that Pakistan would become a partner with the countries that want to reduce the emissions under the ‘Clean Development Mechanism’. In such a case, the environment ministry would issue ‘carbon credits’. He said that this would help Pakistan especially for investment in renewable energy, wind energy, small hydro energy and CNG conversion of transport. — APP