ISLAMABAD – Advisor to the Prime Minister on Climate Change, Malik AminAslam, here on Sunday said that the flagship initiative of the Clean GreenPakistan Index (CGPI), which is set to be launched on October 30, would aimto kick off competition among cities of the country on various indicatorsincluding public access to clean drinking water, safe sanitation, effectivesolid waste management and tree plantation.
He told the media that Prime Minister Imran Khan would launch the CleanGreen Pakistan Index here on October 30 at a grand launching ceremony.
The top key representatives of provincial governments includingGilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, federal and provincialministers, senior federal and provincial government officials, ambassadorsof various countries, university teachers and students and seniorrepresentatives of local and international non-governmental organizationswill attend the ceremony.
At the ceremony, baseline data of 19 competing cities will be announced andannouncement for start of the first phase of six-month competition among 19cities of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces would made by the PrimeMinister, Malik Amin Aslam said.
He added that after six months, these competing cities would be rankedagain and those with prominent progress with be rewarded with specialfederal and provincial government funds.
After six months, more cities will be added in competition as second phaseof the programme, said a press release.The Advisor said that the CGPI has been rolled out by the ministry underthe Prime Minister Imran Khan’s political manifesto of clean and greenPakistan and environmental conservation and sustainability.
He said that present government is focusing on transforming overalloutlooks of the countries cities, which will play key economic engines ofthe country in coming days.“Now cities in many countries across the world are playing vital roles inoverall socio-economic development of the countries.
It is because, cities are now providing economies of scale and they arealso providing efficient infrastructure and services through density andconcentration in sustainable transportation, communications, power, humaninteractions, water and sanitation services and effective waste managementand enhanced urban forestry activities.
Explaining the core objective of the CGPI, Secretary Climate Change HassanNasir Jami said, the CGPI initiative is being kicked off to begin acompetition process among 19 cities of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa citiesin the first phase and the competition process would be expanded to otherprovinces of the country in the second phase for making cities clean andgreen and environmentally sustainable through large-scale tree plantationand sustained supply of basic life amenities such as clean drinking water,safe sanitation, efficient municipal and solid waste management servicedeliveries,” he elaborated.
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Spelling out various aspects of the CGPI, the Secretary told the media,“The CGPI fundamentally comprises five pillars of Clean Green PakistanMovement launched by the Prime Minister last year that include water,sanitation, hygiene, solid waste management and plantation.”
Judging the performance of the cities for the CGPI, each of the fivepillars would be assigned equal weightage of 20 marks during assessment ofthe cities on these five pillars of the CGPI, he added.
“The CGPI, hammered out by the climate change ministry, will primarilymeasure clean and green characters of the cities on different 27 indicatorsunder these five pillars. Besides, this index will be used as measuring-rodas performance indicator for making annual budgetary allocations to theprovinces from the national kitty,” he further told.
Talking about data gathering for the 27 indicators of the Clean and GreenPakistan Index, the Acting Inspector General of Forests at the ClimateChange Ministry, Muhammad Suleman Khan Warraich, explained that the datafor the index would be gathered at households and neighbourhood levelsthrough surveys to be conducted by local government departments.
He also told the media that the data regarding the service delivery inwater, sanitation, hygiene, solid waste management and plantationcategories would be obtained after every three months from the respectivecity councils and administration working in each district of the provincialcities.
Once the data has been evaluated by the climate change ministry, theresults for the performance of the cities on these five pillars (water,sanitation, hygiene, solid waste management and plantation) would beannounced twice a year, the climate change secretary said while explainedthe data collection process for the CGPI, Suleman Warraich added.
He hoped that the Index would be used as a yardstick for improving role ofcities in transforming overall living standards of its inhabitants throughimproved environmental services with better and sustained provision of safedrinking water, sanitation, hygiene, sustainable waste managementfacilities and enhanced urban forest cover.
