Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Sunday strongly urged the need of clean and beautiful rivers for healthy environment, saying that the KorangRiver Clean-up awareness initiative would have long-term impact on the local residents, who in turn will ensure not only its beauty and cleanliness, but promote awareness about environment for Islamabad also.
He was addressing the participants of “Keep Korang Klean” program, organized by the Green Force, an Islamabad-based environmental organisation, in collaboration with the Green Volunteers and Waste Busters, with the sponsorship of Nestle Pakistan, at the KorangRiver cleanup site. The objective of the event was to raise awareness to clean up the heavily-polluted KorangRiver and threats to the environment.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan who also personally came to the site to support the cause of the environment, mingled with the students and encouraged them greatly, saying, “My party and I are committed to the cause of promoting a clean environment in Islamabad and we will support this issue at all levels, from the grassroots to the parliament.” Khan said that he would direct PTI’s newly elected councillors in local government to make clean environment a top priority in their work.
He also highlighted the Billion Tree Tsunami campaign of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government, which is considered as nation’s largest ever tree plantation drive. “It is scandalous that the criminal negligence of relevant authorities is allowing the critical source of drinking water, for people residing in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, to be polluted thereby causing serious health issues,” regretted Senator Mushahid Hussain, while noting that the non-degradable plastic bags, sewage, chemical waste and other garbage was being thrown upstream into the river, and polluted water reaches the Rawal Lake, which is the principal water source for Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Boosting the morale of participants, he also lauded the commitment and positive contribution of the Green Force to protect and preserve the natural beauty of Islamabad, terming to combat the environmental challenges as collective responsibility. He urged the civil society group to play more proactive role in this regard and assured the participants that he, as parliamentarian representing the federal capital, would serve as the voice of a ‘Clean & Green Islamabad’ in the Senate.
Senator Mushahid Hussain and Magdi Batato, CEO of Nestle, also distributed prizes for the participants who collected the most amount of garbage. The Nestle CEO underlined that Nestle would continue to support the environmental issues as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, upon which Senator Mushahid Hussain thanked Nestle for their active support and cooperation for this noble cause.
