Korea to help Pakistan boost water quality monitoring system

Islamabad :The Ministry of Climate Change and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) here on Wednesday have inked a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will help Pakistan enhance water quality monitoring system as a part of the country’s efforts to achieve UN’s Sustainable Development Goal-6.

Prime Minister’s Adviser Malik Amin Aslam represented Pakistan’s delegation while Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Pakistan, Kwak Sung-Kyu the Korean delegation at the MoU signing ceremony.

As a part of the MoU between the governments of Pakistan and the Republic of Korea, a project ‘Enhancing Water Quality Monitoring System’ will be implemented at the cost of $7.42 million from 2019 to 2024.

“The first such project will aim to improve capacity of the government of Pakistan to achieve UN’s SDG-6 that relates to boosting water quality monitoring system for public and environmental safety and conservation purposes,” Media person of Ministry of Climate Change Mohammad Saleem informed.

“KOICA will extend water quality testing equipment and training to PHED (Public Health Engineering Department) laboratories in 36 Punjab and 8 Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces.”

In addition, consultation and technical suggestion on water related policy and legislative reforms in these two provinces would be also supported through this project.

KOICA is a grant agency of Korean government and has implemented various projects in the field of water, energy and rural development in Pakistan.

Quoting Prime minister’s advisor on climate change Malik Amin Aslam, “The current present government is completely committed to actions regarding the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) issues through Clean and Green Pakistan initiative. Above all, water management is a big challenge both in quality and quantity. However, this project is timely meaningful and will hopefully contribute to improving water management in Pakistan.

At the signing ceremony Kwak Sung-Kyu hoped that this project will improve the people’s quality of life by improving water quality parameters and help in achieving UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. .