Courses on environment management launched

SMA Rizvi Textile Institute of Pakistan and Training and Development Centres of the Bavarian Employees' Associations jointly launched courses on environment management on Tuesday. Speaking at launching ceremony of the courses, Consul General of Germany, Dr Christan Brecht hoped the joint project on environment protection would create awareness amongst people and ultimately help Pakistan increase its volume of industrial production to developed world.
He extended his offer to facilitate Pakistan in the field of technological solution to tackle the environment issue in the country. He said Germany as an industrialised nation took the responsibility to protect the environment from degradation. He observed the local industrial zones were facing the wastewater treatment issues, saying the environment management was an important matter. Brecht urged the industrialists to tackle the environmental issues in a better way to help protect the human life and save the industrial output cost.
He said consumers in the developed world were demanding the industrial items only tagged with green labels, ie production through environment friendly mechanism, thus, such methods would help the local exporters augment their volume of exports and earn more money.
The project co-ordinator, Martin Straechle said the Pakistani industrialists were keener to protect the environment as compared to the German ones when they were growing fast their production units and nation was facing the degradation problems in early 60s.
However, later on Germany realised the negative impact of the environment decline on the nation and took brisk steps to stop it from happening. He said Germans were not so cognisant about the environment issues whereas Pakistanis were keen to acquire knowledge and skills to minimise the impact from degradation.
Dr Moazam from Karachi University, who is the architect of the course, told the participants about the course and environmental issues of the country and city. He highlighted the salient features of the course, saying it comprised three different programmes, including postgraduate diploma, short-term and certificate courses.
He pointed out the country was facing acute problems from the issue which could not be addressed properly. He suggested deployment of 2000 environment managers across the country to tackle the issue in line with its rising demand. He regretted lack of co-ordination between the industries and academic institutions for joint efforts to bring down the rising pollution and environment degradation in the country.
He said there were only four landfill sites in the city to dump solid waste there, which were already filled. The city has only the capacity to treat 100 million gallons water per day out of 350 that spill into sea polluting marine environment as a result, Dr Moazam maintained.
Sindh Secretary Environment, Mir Hussain Ali urged Germany to also undertake environment projects with the provincial government. He lauded Germany for continued help to Pakistan since 60s. He observed the new diseases were emerging from environment in the country, besides harming marine ecology. Earlier, Chairman Towel Manufacturers Association, Waqar Alum Lari urged Germany for material assistance to Pakistan so that the environment related issues in the country could easily be solved.