DNA

Rawalpindi, OCT 26 – State Minister for Climate Change Zartaj Gul paid a visit to the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) here on Monday. During her visit she was given a briefing on the rain water harvesting system. She lauded the RCCI efforts in taking lead in making RCCI first green chamber of Pakistan by adopting rainwater harvesting and recharge system along with installation of Solar Panels for energy conservation.

The other chambers and organizations should follow the same, she added. She assured full support to RCCI for its key initiatives for promoting regional trade and advocating on clean and green Pakistan.

She said that the Clean Pakistan goal can only be achieved through public private partnership and the chamber of commerce can play a vital role in bridging the gap here..

Later in her address with the traders community she said that Pakistan is one of the water stressed countries where the ground water table has dangerously dropped to a lower level. Plastic bag ban was another initiative of her ministry which needs full support of the masses and mainly business community.

Pollution is one of the main issues that the PTI led federal government aims to tackle through initiatives like Clean and Green Pakistan. The PTI government has launched many projects including 10 Billion Trees Tsunami project on patron of the Billion Trees Project of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and expanded it across Pakistan.

Earlier President RCCI Mohammad Nasir Mirza in his welcome address said that traders are ready to join the Government for its efforts to address climate change through various steps including tree plantation, ban on plastic bags and use of renewable energy. He said the chamber was implementing the prime minister’s vision of a green Pakistan. Rainwater, through the newly-installed system, can be collected as it has the capacity to recharge 3,000 gallons of groundwater per hour.

He also gave a short briefing on RCCI current activities and ongoing programs.

Group Leader Sohail Altaf said that there is a need to link green initiative with incentives and suggested that tax rebates shall be introduced for adopting rain water harvesting.

Senior Vice President Osman Ashraf, Vice President Shahraiz A Malik, former president Raja Amer Iqbal, members of the executive committee, women members and RCCI members attended the meeting.