ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister and Adviser to prime minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam on Wednesday said that cleanliness was a national and social responsibility and they all have to shoulder it.
He stated this while chairing a preparatory meeting of ‘Clean4Pakistan Initiative’ held at the Ministry of Climate Change. Climate Change Secretary Shah Rukh Nusrat, outgoing secretary Khizar Hayat Khan, Addl Secretary Khurram Ali Agha, UNICEF and UN-HABITAT representative and other senior officials from the ministry were also present in the meeting.
Khurram Agha appraised the chair regarding comparative analysis of international best sanitation models and a successful cleanliness model being followed by Punjab. “We will adopt the world’s best practices being adopted by other countries successfully which will encompass creation of open defecation free environment, building of toilets on community help basis, provision of appropriate drainage and sewerage system especially to the villages through local governments in accordance with the SGD’s commitment,” the adviser said.
He said that the contaminated environment leads to fatal health risks which include Hepatitis A & E, diarrhoea, stunting and other serious health issues and recent studies shown many scary figures regarding Pakistan. He said that Clean4pakistan movement which is being inaugurated on Oct 8th by the prime minister will have a countrywide engagement of all Pakistanis especially local communities, village councils, federal and provincial departments.
“We will launch an aggressive campaign on social and electronic/print media for educating the people and motivating them for active participation,” he said. “We will appoint at least six national cleanliness ambassadors, one from each province, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan. We will try to engage religious leader, celebrities from sports, arts and any other field, to give impetus to the Clean for Pakistan movement, after launch by the prime minister,” he said.
