Director General of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority Imran Qureshi has emphasised that it is a collective responsibility to provide a clean environment to the citizens and noted that line departments are actively engaged in fulfilling this important obligation. He made these remarks during the launch of the ‘Sans app’ which aims to control environmental pollution. With this app, citizens will be able to easily file complaints from their mobile devices. In the initial phase, university students will have the opportunity to voluntarily file complaints against those who are contributing to environmental pollution, he said. Dedicated teams have been formed to respond promptly to complaints filed through the app and they will also be required to update the app with their actions, he said.

The PDMA's control room is monitoring the situation from a provincial level, with a dashboard created to track individuals and organizations that are responsible for environmental pollution. Citizens can report incidents such as burning kilns, vehicles, hospital waste and garbage, burning crop residues, and factories that do not have smoke control devices through the ‘Sans app’ or by calling PDMA's helpline at 1129, he stated. Imran Qureshi remarked that PDMA's control room has the support of line departments in controlling environmental pollution. He stressed that citizens must participate in the plantation campaign and plant more trees to ensure a cleaner environment.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP