Senator Faisal Javed who is currently visiting Brussels in connection with Asia – Europe Parliamentary Meeting (ASEP 10), addressed Pakistani community and media based in Belgium and Luxembourg on Friday. He urged overseas Pakistanis to contribute generously towards Dam Fund. In a large gathering held at the Embassy of Pakistan Brussels Senator Javed explained in detail the need for constructing dams in Pakistan. He also briefed on various steps initiated by the PTI government for environmental protection and mitigating climate change.
Drawing attention towards water scarcity and power shortages, senator Javed said that lack of dams was one of the biggest factor in the wastage of water which has lead to acute water shortages as currently water reserves in Pakistan are very low and available for next 100 days only, against the standard requirement of 400 days. He said that in the absence of sufficient dams 10 trillion gallons of water worth Rs 22 billion was being wasted in Pakistan annually.
“In addition to enhancing water storage capacity, dams were also essential for power generation” said Senator Javed . He said that he was sure that dams will be built up in Pakistan with the support of people of Pakistan living inside and outside the country. He reminded that the track record of PM Imran Khan of turning challenges into opportunities, pursuing his aims with determination and consistency and using people’s money with transparency has rendered deep trust among the people in his efforts.
Reckoning the successful programmes in the realm of environmental protection and climate change mitigation, Senator Javed said that under the leadership of Imran Khan, Pakistan became the first country to meet the International Bonn Challenge – with restoration of over 350,000 hectors land into forests by planting over a billion trees, provided by over 13,000 private nurseries which also created over 500,000 green jobs”, Senator Javed said.
The tree plantation programme in KPK was acknowledged by IUCN where they had given the world a challenge of restoring 150 million hectares of land into forests by 2020 and 350 million hectares of land by 2030. Pakistan was the first to meet the this very challenge. It was audited independently by World-wild Life Fund (WWF) who declared this project as an environmental, economic and social success. He apprised that the next plan by the Government of Pakistan is to plant over 10 Billion trees across Pakistan. In this regard on the inaugural day of this campaign 1.5 million trees were planted. “We hope that within the next 5 years we will be able to plant over 10 Billion trees across Pakistan”, said Senator Javed.
Brussels
29.9.2018
