The 30th 'World Environment Day' is being celebrated world-wide on Saturday June 5, with the theme of "Wanted! seas and oceans - dead or alive?".
The day would also be celebrated throughout Pakistan by holding seminars and walks in a bid to promote environmental protection.
In Lahore, Environment Protection (EPD) in collaboration with the Lahore City District Government's Environment Department (LCDGED) was holding a seminar, in which leading environmentalists would highlight the necessity of clean environment, while the Punjab Environment Minister Makhdoom Ashfaque Ahmad would deliver the concluding remarks.
Moreover, the EPD would set up tuning centres in all the districts of Punjab in various workshops, which would tune up vehicles free of cost.
While talking to Business Recorder, Amjad Aslam, World Wide Funds for Nature Pakistan (WWF-P)'s Head of Communication, said, "the commemoration of this day was the year's most important event, as it acts as a great stimulant for focusing the world's attention on the environment.
This day gives us a unique opportunity to bring people together from all over the world, and make a pledge to protect and preserve our environment."
According to him, the theme for this year gives us a choice as to how we want to treat the Earth's water resources.
It asks us whether we want to keep our seas and oceans healthy and alive, or do we want them polluted and dead? WWF-Pakistan commemorates this day with the aim of increasing awareness of the need to conserve our environment, water and on water contamination issues. Clean water was a fundamental necessity of life, but due to human activities, almost all our water reservoirs (seas, rivers or oceans) have become heavily contaminated.
The major contributor to this contamination was the discharge of sewage into the water by various factories, jute mills, engineering works, etc.