People urged to mould lives closer to nature

Islamabad : It is time to mould our lives closer to nature by protecting, preserving and promoting healthy living. This can be achieved by focus on providing the essential infrastructure that supports life on Earth and human development.

This is the message of former information minister and senator Nisar A Memon for the World Environment Day to be marked today (Friday) to create public awareness and ensure actions for environmental protection.

The former minister said in Pakistan, over 60 per cent of population lived in rural areas, which were ignored for all those years.

He said the essential infrastructure for education, health and social delivery should assume priority in upcoming budget and all policies should be endorsed by people’s representatives in the assemblies and Senate.

"To improve biodiversity and environment, we must reduce pollution, implement water and environment policies developed in the last 20 years by various governments, free mountains from human interventions, let rivers flow without creating obstacles in the river path, refrain from discharging chemicals in river and sea without first treating them of toxicity, reduce use of fertiliser by growing organic food, grow and not cut trees, provide alternate fuel to rural areas, use natural solar and wind power, protect marine life and coastal areas rich in fish for sustainability of life," he said.

Nisar Memon said the Covid-19 pandemic had brought all possible challenges to humans but the single most was the threat to life with hundreds of thousands already succumbed to the crisis and yet it was not under human control.

He, however, said the lockdown had resulted in lower pollution and reduced climate change adverse impact.

The former senator said Pakistan was committed to implementing 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and many of them were related to environment but specifically SDG 13 was about climate actions, SDG 14 about life below water, SDG 15 about life on land and SDG 9 about innovation and infrastructure.

"Let today be the day of true commitment to protect environment for the sake of our future generation and also follow the Constitution and Quran," he emphasised.