PESHAWAR: The second meeting of Environmental Protection Council (EPC), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Sardar Ali Amin Gandapur here the other day.
Besides, acting Chief Secretary Muhammad Abid Majeed, administrative secretaries of relevant departments, officials of the Environment Department and private members of the Council attended the meeting.
The meeting deliberated on various matters to effectively address the issue of environmental pollution, and took a number of important decisions to this end. It was decided to strictly implement the provincial government’s decision to ban the use of polythene bags across the province especially in the tourist areas of the province, and a timeline of three months was set for a complete ban on the use and sale of polythene bags in the province.
It was further decided that after the expiry of the given timeline, strict actions would be taken against those violating the ban.
The forum decided in principle to shift brick kilns across the province to Zigzag technology further deciding to start a project so that the brick kiln owners could be facilitated with soft loans to shift their kilns to zigzag technology.
The meeting also approved the proposed Rules of Procedures of the Environmental Protection Council. An important agenda item of the meeting i.e., declaring the tourist areas of the province as environmentally sensitive areas, was discussed threadbare, and the Environment Department was directed to work out the issue with all relevant stakeholders and table final proposals to the provincial cabinet for consideration. These tourist spots include Naran, Kaghan, Shogran, Galiyat, Kumrat and Kalam.
The meeting also deliberated on the establishment of Climate Change Center and Climate Change Authority in the province, and the concerned authorities were directed to consult the relevant experts and partners to come up with feasible proposal for implementation.
As an important step with regard to educate the young lots of the province about climate change, the forum decided in principle to harmonize the content related to climate change in the curriculum of schools and colleges with the modern requirements, and it was decided to form a committee consisting of relevant officials and experts for the purpose.
Similarly, matters related to regulating BTS towers in the province were also discussed in the meeting and the concerned authorities were directed to finalise the proposed guidelines in consultation with the partners and submit them to the next meeting of the Council for approval.
The forum directed the health department to submit a report about the waste management of hospitals in the province within a month time. The forum also agreed to the proposal of capacity building of the Environment Department to enable to deal with the challenges of climate change effectively, and the high ups of the department were tasked to submit feasible proposals for the approval of the relevant forum in this regard.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur termed the issue of environmental pollution as a challenge and said that there is a dire need for timely and coordinated efforts to deal with this challenge in an effective manner.
Stressing the need for coordinated efforts under a well devised strategy to deal with the emerging challenges of climate change, Gandapur directed all the concerned departments and entities to sit together to devise a comprehensive strategy in this regard, identifying the issues, and suggesting viable solutions to those issues.
