KADO plans a week of events in Hunza Valley to celebrate Environment Day

PRESS RELEASE

Hunza: “The district administration will work shoulder to shoulder with the community and civil society organization working in the new borne district of Hunza-Nagar for the environmental protection including transportation management, cleanliness of drinking water sources and ensure quality food product sold in the district bazaars. The local administration will share its resources with KADO to address the environmental issues”.

These views were expressed by the newly appointed Deputy Commissioner of District Hunza-Nagar Mr. Muhammad in a conference at Karimabad Hunza arranged by the Karakoram Area Development Organization-KADO in line with the world environmental day which is celebrated on 5th June every year all over the world. World Environment Day (WED) is a day that stimulates awareness about environment and enhances political attention and public action. It is hosted every year by different cities of the world with a different theme and is commemorated with an international exposition in the week of 5 June. The global theme for WED 2011 is “Forest: Nature at your service”.

Representatives of the district administration including Police department, traffic police, LG & RD and DHQ hospital were invited in the conference apart from representatives of the business community, community organizations, schools, colleges and notables of the region shared their suggestions and concerns over the emerging environmental issues. The Superintendent of Police Mr. Tufail expressed his satisfaction over the steps KADO has taken towards the environmental protection. The business community showed their concern over the traffic miss management in central Hunza especially in the bazaar area and stressed on the need of proper arrangement for the transport adda away from the market place. SP assured his cooperation in resolving the traffic management and other related issues in close coordination with KADO and the business associations.

The participants appreciated the efforts of KADO in environmental protection and other thematic areas KADO is working since 1996. They emphasized the role of Government institutions in the environmental protection and management and showed their concern over the ineffectiveness of such institutions. The community representatives showed their dissatisfaction over the low quality and expired food products sold in the district bazaars. They suggested controlling such inhuman acts through food inspector and punish such culprits. They further showed their concern over the cleanness of the water sources in Hassanabad and Ultar which are the only sources of drinking water for the whole of central Hunza region and are in a measurable condition.

The chief executive officer of KADO Mr. Mubeen Muhammad shed light on importance of the day and shared the objectives of the conference and the local theme of the day for this year, which is “clean drinking water for healthy life”. He also briefed the audience about the efforts KADO is putting to protect the environment in its limited resources through the Hunza Environmental committee which is a project of KADO. HEC collects the solid waste of commercial and residential areas from Karimabad and Aliabad Hunza which is than disposed. KADO is performing this responsibility for the last 14 years.

KADO has planned a weeklong celebration of the world environmental day in the region which includes awareness campaigns, though rallies, talk shows and conferences in central, lower and upper Hunza (Gojal) simultaneously.