Launch of Clean Green Pakistan Index on 30th

Islamabad: Adviser to the prime minister on climate change Malik Amin Aslam on Sunday said the flagship initiative of the Clean Green Pakistan Index (CGPI) will be launched on October 30 to hold a competition among cities on various indicators, including public access to clean drinking water, safe sanitation, effective solid waste management and tree plantation.

He told reporters here that Prime Minister Imran Khan would launch the Clean Green Pakistan Index during a special ceremony. He said the top key representatives of provincial governments including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Federal and provincial ministers, senior federal and provincial government officials, ambassadors of various countries, university teachers and students and senior representatives of local and international non-governmental organizations will attend the ceremony.

The adviser said during the ceremony, baseline data of 19 competing cities would be announced and announcement for start of the first phase of six-month competition among 19 cities of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces would be made by the prime minister. He said after six months, the competing cities would be ranked again and those with prominent progress with be rewarded with special federal and provincial government funds, while more cities will be added in competition.

Malik Amin said the CGPI had been rolled out by the ministry under the Prime Minister Imran Khan's political manifesto of clean and green Pakistan and environmental conservation and sustainability.

He said the government was focusing on transforming overall outlooks of the countries cities, which would play key economic engines of the country in the days ahead. "Now cities in many countries across the world are playing vital roles in the overall socio-economic development of the countries. It is because, cities are now providing economies of scale and they are also providing efficient infrastructure and services through density and concentration in sustainable transportation, communications, power, human interactions, water and sanitation services and effective waste management and enhanced urban forestry activities," he said.

Secretary of the Climate Change Ministry said the CGPI initiative was to hold a competition process among 19 cities of Punjab and KP.