Imran Khan joins the drive to “Keep Korang Klean”

Lahore: Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed has strongly urged the need of clean and beautiful rivers for healthy environment, saying that the Korang River Clean-up awareness initiative would have long-term impact on the local residents, who in turn will ensure not only its beauty and cleanliness, but promote awareness about environment for Islamabad also.

He was addressing the participants of  program, organized by the Green Force, an Islamabad-based environmental organisation, in collaboration with the Green Volunteers and Waste Busters, with the sponsorship of Nestle Pakistan, here at the Korang River clean up site. The objective of the event was to raise awareness to clean up the heavily-polluted Korang River and threats to the environment.

The Chairman of PTI, Imran Khan, who also personally came to the site to support the cause of the environment, mingled with the students and encouraged them greatly, saying that ‘my Party and I are committed to the cause of promoting a clean environment in Islamabad and we will support this issue at all levels, from the grassroots to the parliament.’

Imran Khan said that he would direct PTI newly elected Councillors in local government to ‘make clean environment a top priority in their work’. He also highlighted the Billion Tree Tsunami campaign of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government, which is considered as nation’s largest ever tree plantation drive.

“It is scandalous that the criminal negligence of relevant authorities is allowing the critical source of drinking water, for people residing in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, to be polluted thereby causing serious health issues,” regretted Senator Mushahid Hussain, while noting that the non-degradable plastic bags, sewage, chemical waste and other garbage was being thrown upstream into the river, and polluted water reaches the Rawal Lake, which is the principal water source for Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Boosting the morale of participants, he also lauded the commitment and positive contribution of the Green Force to protect and preserve the natural beauty of Islamabad, terming to combat the environmental challenges as collective responsibility. He urged the civil society group to play more proactive role in this regard and assured the participants that he, as parliamentarian representing the Federal Capital, would serve as the voice of a ‘Clean & Green Islamabad’ in the Senate.

About a hundred school students of age group 13 to 19 years have taken part in the river clean-up competition, where 10 teams consisting of 10 children each, worked for one and a half hour tirelessly to collect garbage from the Korang River, which has suffered from massive amounts of pollution for decades.

Senator Mushahid Hussain and Magdi Batato, CEO of Nestle, also distributed prizes for the participants who collected the most amount of garbage. The Nestle CEO underlined that Nestle would continue to support the environmental issues as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, upon which Senator Mushahid Hussain thanked Nestle for their active support and cooperation for this noble cause.