Islamabad: The Clean Green Pakistan Index is expected to be launched across the country on November 15 – a news source reported. This initiative will pit 19 major Pakistani cities against one another to determine the capability of each in maintaining cleanliness within its borders — and to contain the rising levels of pollution affecting the country as a whole.
According to an official of the ministry of climate change, the Prime Minister will be launching the initiative himself. He will also rate the performance of the 19 cities in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, with their ratings based on four major factors: public access to clean drinking water, safe sanitation, effective solid waste management and tree plantation.
These factors have additional 27 indicators, which include air quality of the particular district or city, soil quality or degradation level, solid waste management, safe sanitation of municipal waste, wastewater treatment, access to clean drinking water, and measures to control open defecation etc.
The data for the index is expected to be gathered by municipal and district departments. They will then be submitting these details to the municipal headquarters, who can forward it to the provincial headquarters, from where they can be passed on the ministry of climate change.
One interesting point to remember is that the provincial development funds have been linked to the performance of each city under this friendly competition. Additionally, the cities that are determined to have performed the best out of the total 19 will be provided with further support from the state and receive national recognition for their efforts to combat climate change.
