Toxics

Pakistan is facing widespread environmental degradation like many other developing countries. Mitigation measures have been insufficient to address the multi-dimensional nature of problems. Given this situation and in accordance with the redefinition of WWF's mission to include "promoting action to reduce pollution and the wasteful exploitation and consumption of resources and energy" in 1990, the Environmental Pollution Unit (EPU) was set up in Lahore in 1993. As a step towards this goal in Pakistan, an environmental officer was appointed within this unit to launch and co-ordinate WWF's efforts in environmental pollution prevention and policy formulation. The establishment of EPU has enabled WWF to address both the brown and green issues of pollution simaltaneously.

Objectives

• To promote actions and coordinate activities which reduce pollution, wasteful consumption of energy and resources to a minimum

• To build the capacity of the corporate sector in the fields of environmental management systems, environmental auditing, industrial waste management and waste minimisation techniques

• To develop informative and educational material on pollution issues and to raise public awareness through the print media by developing features on pesticides and hazardous chemical use, pollution prevention methods and other environmental issues

• To provide technical expertise to the public/private sector and WWF - Pakistan in order to persue activities on pollution prevention, and to comment on issues like environmental legislation, energy policy and environmental impact asessment.

Main Activities:

• Carrying out field based projects

• Organising training workshops for the capacity building of the industrial and corporate sectors

• Raising awareness among the public and maintaining an effective media liaison

• Providing support and assistance to students in their thesis on topics related to environment