Karachi: The Sindh Public Health Engineering and Rural Development (PHERD) Department has decided to provide over 5000 sites throughout the province for tree plantation to NGOs, civil society groups, environmental activists, neighbourhood organizations and private companies.
According to the PHERD Secretary Roshan Shaikh, most of the identified sites are in districts other than Karachi and vary in sizes, from a few hundred yards to tens of acres.
The operations will be finalized soon and not only will the organizations be offered land but also facilities including access to seeds, plants and gardeners. Formal advertisements will be floated out soon as invitations to NGOs, companies and other groups for joint ventures with the government.
The department has notified of the formation of a committee and monitoring groups for designated sites which will comprise of three representatives of the area community, a department engineer and a pump operator. They will be responsible for plantation design and maintenance for three years.
Roshan Shaikh has said that the project stands at a total cost of Rs290 million for which the required funds are available and will be spent over a period of three years.
