Dr. Jasinghe confident green socio-economic target attainable with everyone’s help

By Ifham Nizam

President Gotabaya Rajapkasa had given a formidable task to the Environment Ministry by appointing Minister of Environmen Mahinda Amaraweera as the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force to transform Sri Lanka into a Green Socio-Economy with a Sustainable Solution to Climate Change, said Environment Ministry Secretary Dr. Anil Jasinghe.

Dr. Jasinghe said Environment Minister Amaraweera had been appointed to transform Sri Lanka into a Green Socio Economy with Sustainable Solutions to Climate Change. “Inter-ministerial cooperation is essential in the programmes implemented by the Ministry of Environment. Therefore, the President has appointed the Minister of Environment as the Chairman and me as the Secretary of the above task force,” he said at a discussion held at the Ministry on Tuesday.

Dr. Jasinghe said he believed that public assistance was needed to accomplish the task. “We need to pay special attention to the many recent eco-friendly decisions taken by the President.

Promoting organic farming, increasing Sri Lanka’s forest cover by 30 percent, reducing the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, promoting electric vehicles instead of fuel-powered vehicles, producing non-toxic food, producing 70 percent of the country’s electricity from renewable energy, Take appropriate action to manage human – elephant conflict, We have been entrusted with a great deal of work to expedite the process of minimizing the use of plastics and polythene, to regularise garbage disposal, and to formulate programmes suitable for the public to become accustomed to a green economy,” he added.

He noted it also contained a number of important pro-country proposals such as the use of the Surakimu Ganga programme that we have implemented to clean up our country’s river system and establish a drainage system suitable for human consumption, as well as building a healthy population through organic farming.

“I think our country has never had a leader who thought so much about environmental conservation and the future of our country and formulated programmes. He has a broad vision. We have to help achieve the desired goal.”