LAHORE: The International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), appreciating the Punjab government in its efforts to transfer brick kilns in the province on cleaner technology, has stressed upon the Sindh province to learn from the experience of Punjab.

In a letter to the Punjab Senior Minister Maryam Aurangzeb, the ICIMOD representatives wrote that the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is an intergovernmental regional knowledge centre working across the Hindu Kush Himalaya. The ICIMOD has worked with partners to introduce zig­zag brick kiln technology in Pakistan while simultaneously strengthening the capacity of stakeholders, including the brick kiln industry and government departments.

“These initiatives would not have succeeded in Punjab without the support of the Environment Protection Department (EPD) Punjab, the Ministry of Climate Change, and the Brick Kiln Owners Association of Pakistan (BKOAP).

The stringent measures taken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Punjab to promote zigzag technology in brick kilns have reduced PM2.5 emissions and set the stage for other provinces to follow suit,” said the letter.

The ICIMOD invited the minister to be the chief guest to a training program in Sindh. The objective of the training is to scale zigzag brick kiln operations and the Social Code of Conduct (SCoC) by capacitating stakeholders, including government officials and brick kiln owners from Sindh province based on the learning from Punjab, Pakistan, and Nepal. The letter hoped that this would help participants from Sindh adopt environmentally friendly and energy-efficient brick kiln technologies, aligning with Pakistan’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) 2021 and other climate commitments.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024