Ministry to get $0.5m WB grant for environmental management
Ministry to get $0.5m WB grant for environmental management
By Atif KhanISLAMABAD: The Environment Ministry is likely to get $0.5 million grant from World Bank (WB) to strengthen its capacity for environmental management and fill the gaps between federal and provincial governments in implementing National Environment Policy (NEP), 2005.According to a ministry report, there’s insufficient coordination between federal and provincial agencies, and little or no coordination between provincial authorities and district, and sub-district level authorities, which are to execute and implement the environmental projects.The Environment Ministry’s Director General, Javed Ali Khan, told Daily Times on Saturday that Pakistan suffered from pollution, depleting underground water levels and sanitation problems, which had a negative bearing on environment. He said environmental degradation cost Pakistan Rs 365 billion annually. He said the NEP, 2005, developed to attend to all environmental issues, couldn’t be implemented because under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997, provincial governments were given environmental management powers, while the Environment Ministry and Pak-Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) were to make environment policies and guidelines.According to Javed Ali Khan, the ministry recently requested the WB for helping it check environmental degradation. The Bank initiated a loan process from Japan, but the ministry asked for a grant and not loan. “At our request, World Bank is currently processing $500,000 grant,” he said.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\08\03\story_3-8-2008_pg11_10
By Atif KhanISLAMABAD: The Environment Ministry is likely to get $0.5 million grant from World Bank (WB) to strengthen its capacity for environmental management and fill the gaps between federal and provincial governments in implementing National Environment Policy (NEP), 2005.According to a ministry report, there’s insufficient coordination between federal and provincial agencies, and little or no coordination between provincial authorities and district, and sub-district level authorities, which are to execute and implement the environmental projects.The Environment Ministry’s Director General, Javed Ali Khan, told Daily Times on Saturday that Pakistan suffered from pollution, depleting underground water levels and sanitation problems, which had a negative bearing on environment. He said environmental degradation cost Pakistan Rs 365 billion annually. He said the NEP, 2005, developed to attend to all environmental issues, couldn’t be implemented because under the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997, provincial governments were given environmental management powers, while the Environment Ministry and Pak-Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) were to make environment policies and guidelines.According to Javed Ali Khan, the ministry recently requested the WB for helping it check environmental degradation. The Bank initiated a loan process from Japan, but the ministry asked for a grant and not loan. “At our request, World Bank is currently processing $500,000 grant,” he said.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\08\03\story_3-8-2008_pg11_10
Comments
Post a Comment