Word Environment Day

5 June 2003

'Water - Two Billion People are Dying for It!'

Islamabad

World Environment Day events was held in Islamabad on 5 June 2003. The events were presented as an operation of the United Nations System in Pakistan in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment of the Government of Pakistan. The first part of the observance, started at the National Library auditorium on the arrival of the chief guest, i.e. the Minister for the Environment. After the Secretary-General’s message read by the acting UN Resident Coordinator and remarks by the
environment minister, awards from the ministry and the UN System were given to the best performers of the declamation contest and skits and songs.

The UN side was represented by
the acting UN Resident Coordinaotor, WHO Representative.

About 600 people attended the ceremony including tens of schools from all over the country and the media.

The ceremony consisted of a declamation contest on the protection of the environment followed by a recitation of environmental poems and the presentations of skits and songs under the theme of freshwater/pollution, all of which were performed by school children.

At the end of the ceremony, the environment minister accompanied by the acting Resident Coordinator
and the media joined a group of school children to visit the water filtration plant near the Rawal Dam in
the suburbs of Islamabad. This was the second part of the event.

A group of Afghan refugee school children also took part in the site visit of the plant together with the
environment minister, making the total of visitors over one hundred.