Snow Leopard Foundation Pakistan: ‘Solid Waste Management Campaign During Shandur Festival’

‘Solid Waste Management Campaign During Shandur Festival’
Posted by Staff Reporter on Mon, 2011-07-11 19:08 | filed underGilgit-Baltistan

World Wide Fund for Nature Pakistan, Saving Wetlands Sky High Programme, Pakistan Wetlands Programme-Northern Alpine Wetlands Complex and Snow Leopard foundation Pakistan jointly organized a mass awareness campaign about Solid Waste Management during Shandur Polo Festival on July (7th- 9th ), 2010.

The purpose of the solid waste cleanup campaign was to create awareness among the visitors about solid waste and its impact on the aesthetics, lake and associated ecosystems. The participating organizations aimed at aggrandising public participation in solid waste management.

http://www.dardistantimes.com/content/solid-waste-management12-campaign-during-shandur-festival33
About 80 dedicated volunteers from Shandur Local Support Organization (SLSO), Teru, Shandur Area Development Organization (SADO), Luspur and Youth Advocacy Forum (YAF), Chitral participated in waste collection and assessment (composition, sources, per capita generation rate and total solid waste generation during the festival).

Informational banners were installed at major entry points and key locations to guide the visitors through managing solid waste and to remain sensitive about the ecosystems. The organizers also held random group meetings with visitors and the polo organizers seeking support in the environmental initiatives taken in this remote part of the world. The volunteers of the participating organizations diligently picked, sorted, transported about 3.3 tones solid waste and disposed off in a designated landfill site.

The initiative of WWF-P and its partner organizations was highly supported and appreciated by the polo-goers in the Shandur Festival.

Shandur Polo Festival is held, every year during the first week of july, in Shandur— a worldy renowned natural sporting arena situated midway between Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan. Thousands of local and international tourists visit the festival every year.

The story has been contributed from the office of Northern Alpine Wetlands Complex (NAWC), WWF, Pakistan, Jutial Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. (Tel:0092 5811 455658)
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