Ministry of Environment is facing shortage of funds for planning projects to enhance sanitation coverage and promote safe hygiene practices as part of the activities of International Year of Sanitation, sources told Business Recorder here on Thursday.
For this purpose, a high level meeting was held here on Thursday chaired by Samiul Haq Khilji, Additional Secretary of Environment. Sharing the details of the meeting, sources said that though the representatives of the private sectors agreed that they would fully cooperate with the Ministry, none of them showed any interest in donating funds for initiating the environmental schemes.
Sources said the scarcity of funds is creating hurdles in launching schemes to celebrate the International Year of Sanitation. "According to the schedule, the ministry had to formally launch the projects during the first week of February. But considering the shortage of funds, the activities are not yet even planned," said the sources.
The ministry is looking for funds from various national and international organisations. "It is a matter of deep concern that various NGOs assured their full support to the ministry but none of them has yet donated any funds. It seems that ministry has full moral support from all quarters but not financial," said the sources.
Therefore, to overcome the problem the Ministry has decided to seek participation of private sector for promotion of environmental activities. Representatives of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Radio Pakistan, Unicef, World Bank and Chamber of Commerce attended the meeting.
The ministry has requested the media to fully cooperate in disseminating the sanitation message as a public service. The sources quoting officials of the ministry said that it is the responsibility of the media to offer their services free of charge for such activities.
The sources further added that to plan and implement the activities, the ministry has formed committees and sub-committees. "It is expected that after the elections, the ministry would further work on this and would also formally launch the sanitation activities across the country," said sources.
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