The Sindh government has formed a committee comprised of provincial ministers and officers from different departments to review the proposed programmes and suggestions mentioned in the draft of United Nations “Living Indus Initiative” to improve the water quality and quantity and also to restore the health of the Indus Basin.
The review committee would be consisted of Sindh Minister for Irrigation Department Jam Khan Shoro, Sindh Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Coastal Development, Mohammad Ismail Rahu, Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Qasim Siraj Soomro, MPA Pir Mujeeb and officers from the Environment Protection Agency, Sindh, Planning and Development and other relevant departments. The review committee has to submit its final recommendations and suggestions to the office of United Nations Resident Coordinator for Pakistan before the 1st of June so as to finalize the draft.
This was decided in a meeting with the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Pakistan, Julien Harneis and other UN officials held at Clifton Karachi. The meeting was attended by Sindh ministers including Jam Khan Shoro, Ismail Rahoo, Parliamentary Secretary for Health Qasim Soomro, MPA Pir Mujeeb and others. During the meeting, UN Resident Coordinator, Julien Harneis said that “we have started work on ‘Living Indus Initiative’ under the Prime Minister’s climate change committee last year in the month of December and it was realised that there would be some kind of institutional arrangements that would make sure the suggestions would be proposed to make the Indus Basin healthier.
At last, during the meeting of the committee on climate change, this draft pertaining to ‘Living Indus Initiative’ was proposed for Pakistan as the beginning of the conversation to serious efforts to restore the health of the Indus Basin.
He said the water of the Indus River has been contaminated and “we need to engage the society to change their perception and attitudes in order to conserve water and quality of water and to save it from getting more polluted”.
