Asian Development Bank organizes Pak-Afghan workshop on ‘Regional Exchange on Good Practice of Environmental Safeguard Management

Lahore: Pak-Afghan workshop on ‘Regional Exchange on Good Practice of Environmental Safeguard Management’ held under the auspices of Asian Development Bank (ADB) at a local hotel concluded on yesterday. The 4-day event was meant for environmental safeguard staff of project implementation units (PIUs) and project management units (PMUs) of ADB funded projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As many as 30 participants including 10-member delegation from Afghanistan participated in the workshop.

On the last day of workshop, the participants visited the New Khanki Barrage Project (NKBP) at tehsil Wazirabad in district Gujranwala to witness the implementation of environmental safeguard practices at site. Project Management Office (PMO) Punjab Barrages officials, representatives of Consultants (SMEC) and Contractor (Descon) welcomed the team on its arrival at the project site.

Team Leader of the consultants (SMEC), Muhammad Azam Chaudhry briefed the team about NKBP and said that the construction of New Khanki Barrage to replace the 123-year-old Khanki Headworks, which took start in July 2013, will be completed by 2017.

Deputy Director Environment, PMO Barrage, Pervaiz Arif in his presentation highlighted the environmental issues encountered at the project site and the mitigation measures taken to resolve the issues. Later on, Project Manager (Descon), Muhammad Anees Sheikh led the delegation to the site of under-construction barrage, labour camp, warehouse etc. and shared technical information about its various components with the participants of the visiting delegation.

The visiting delegation asked a number of questions about the project and its environmental issues and appreciated the good practices of environmental safeguard management being implemented at the project site.