Pakistan is amongst the top ten countries on the globe experiencing frequent and intense climate change events such as floods, droughts, cyclones, heavy rains, extremely high temperatures, etc. The
The Asian Development Bank said Tuesday it is to lend Bangladesh $170 million to help cope with a rapid rise in food prices triggered in part by natural disasters. The loan, part of a package with other multilateral aid donors, "will ensure access to food supply for those hardest hit by recent natural disasters in Bangladesh and the rapid increase in food prices,' the ADB said in a statement. ADB funding will provide support to Bangladeshi government "safety net programmes' intended to ensure that some five million poor people get access to food. afp
Frustrated over the failure of the Rs 2.5 billion National Programme for the Control and Prevention of Hepatitis (NPCPH) to deliver the goods in the last three years, the Health Ministry bosses and experts are now busy re-designing the current strategy to fight the viral disease whose sufferers are around 15 million in Pakistan. In August 2005, the ministry had launched the five-year NPCPH to contain growing cases of hepatitis, especially hepatitis C, in the country and provide patients with inexpensive treatment.
The city district government has set up 54 centres in Rawalpindi district to supply flour to the residents at control rate of Rs 375 per 20 kg bag.
: The LPG Association of Pakistan (LPGAP) has suspended 32 percent of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supplies to Lahore to protest against the city government's takeover of LPG filling plants situated in the city.
The Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers (PAAPAM) has flayed allowing import of 10 years old Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses from India, announced in the Trade Policy 2008-09. Chairman PAAPAM, A Malik said Monday that Pakistan would become a junkyard of used machinery as a result of measures announced in recent Trade Policy. He said after five years of use in public transport, the buses would lose their efficiency and after 10 years would outlive their utility. staff report
About 70 percent of Lahore's water supply is contaminated due to a lack of chlorification, a recent survey conducted by the Environment Protection Department (EPD) has revealed. EPD Secretary Zafar Iqbal said that following the first monsoon rain he had ordered EPD staff to collect water samples from across the city. He said that 183 samples had been collected, of which 120 had been tested. Iqbal said that the samples had been collected from water tanks, hand pumps, pipes and other supply sources.
The farmers of Khairpur Gamboh sub-division of Naseer Canal on Monday threatened to besiege the offices of senior officials of Irrigation Department if water was not released immediately into the channels of their area. Tando Jan Mohammad union council nazim Mir Zafarullah Talpur, former nazim of Digri taluka Kazi Fazlullah and others said at a news conference at the press club that water had not been released for past six months into the 16 water channels of Khairpur Gamboh, the largest sub-division of Rohri Canal, which irrigated more than 400,000 acres of land.
Hundreds of millions of people will still not have access to sanitation by 2015 as the UN's Millennium Development Goals are "badly off track' on this topic, the World Health Organisation warned Thursday. "We are badly off track' to meet the MDG on improvements in sanitation, WHO coordinator for water, sanitation and health Jamie Bartram told journalists in Geneva.
British state schools are to be included under the government's new domestic carbon emissions trading scheme from April 2010, the environment minister said on Wednesday. Energy use in schools will be measured and count toward the emissions permit quotas of local authorities, which in turn will be encouraged to advise schools on energy efficiency, Hilary Benn said. "Young people stand to gain most tomorrow from the action we take on climate change today. That's why schools should be included in the shift to a low carbon economy,' Benn said in a statement.
Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) plans to produce 100,000 units a year of a new hybrid-only model slated for release in 2009 at a subsidiary in southern Japan, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday. The new car, which will be Toyota's second dedicated hybrid model after the hot-selling Prius, will have a 2- to 2.5-litre engine and will also be sold under the company's luxury Lexus brandname, the paper said.
