ISLAMABADI: The speakers at a seminar on Thursday emphasised that educating young girls on climate action was imperative for an effective intervention to protect the damaging environment from further deterioration.
The Women Welfare and Development Centre and Islamabad Crescent Lions Club and FHDP organised environment-friendly celebrations in connection with World Environment Day 2023 here, under the theme ‘Beat the plastic pollution’.
The event included seven activities comprising of youth assembly, speech competition, painting competition, essay writing, award show, tree plantation and magic show.
Member Inspection, Capital Development Authority (CDA), Romana Kakar as chief guest said the government was spending human resources and capital for the plantation but the public was not taking its ownership. “We have an inbuilt passion to protect the mother earth and nature so it’s needed to end our selfishness towards nature,” she added.
Kakar said World Environment Day demanded mankind to beat plastic pollution but it should be clarified that the public runs social media campaigns against profiteers but not against plastics.
RDF, President, Brigadier (R) Muhammad Aslam Khan said Pakistan had a very low tree cover as compared to the global average and it was necessary to overcome this gap and plant trees to enhance its green cover.
He highlighted that the major cause of urban flooding was plastics clogging sewers and drains in the cities. Therefore, the nation particularly its young daughters must pledge to end plastics from their lives.
In his welcome remarks, Founder of Islamabad Crescent Lions Club, Lion Sibtain Raza Lodhi said June 5th was celebrated as environment day across the world and “this year’s theme was solutions to plastic pollution”. There had been seminars and symposiums, including walks being made to create awareness on the pressing issue, he added.
Lodhi said the people should stop relying on the government and start educating the daughters of the nation at their younger ages with a clear vision to preserve the environment.
He informed that fruit trees would be planted on the premises of the center.
CEO- FHDP Lion Tahira Naimat also welcomed the participants and briefed them on the events being held in connection with the World Environment Day. She also held and interactive session with the participants including students on climate education.
Deputy Director, Women Welfare and Development Centre, Ismat Afridi said the Centre was arranging different activities for education and awareness of the young girls as World Environment Week was underway and it was an important issue.
“Plants are our life and if they don’t exist there is no life. We should vow to plant more and more trees and to keep the country clean and green.”
She regretted that the civic agencies were putting up dumpsters but no cleanliness was observed by the public as littering was done by the masses despite being educated.
“People should keep trash in trash bags and dump it in dustbins. It is pertinent to create self-awareness and commitment to keep the environment clean and green. Students should adopt their concepts and ideas practically to protect the environment,” he added.
Civil Society Activist and motivational speaker, Naseer Memon said tree plantation was a responsible task and demanded proper care. However, the current generation of mankind had transferred an environment that was degraded and it expected this youth to improve it, he added.
“If we can’t reduce and manage solid waste generation then we have no moral right to question the government for managing the solid waste,” he said.
Memon said the masses were campaigning to end plastics, but the fact was that plastics were cheaper but highly hazardous as they had carcinogenic nature.
“These plastic bags had hazardous elements and have a shelf life of 500 years. Around 55 billion plastic bags are produced per year in Pakistan. These plastic bags are going to damage our environment for many centuries. We should switch from single-use plastics bags to cotton bags, one-time-use plastic bottles to reusable glass bottles, etc.,” he said.
Later, the students were awarded prizes for winning the speech, essay writing and painting competitions.