PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Tuesday directed the authorities concerned to prepare an integrated plan for waste collection and disposal to ensure clean environment in the province.

Talking to a group of international consultants here, he said his government had already started work on the cleanliness, waste collection and its safe disposal to ensure clean environment in urban centres, particularly in Peshawar.

Mr Khattak said in future the tehsil municipal administrations would collect waste and dispose it from the urban centres, adding villages were equally dirty, posing environmental threat and thus their cleaning was a must.

The chief minister said land had already been acquired for waste disposal in Peshawar and the programme would soon be practically launched. However, he said there was dire need of proper recycling of the waste for energy generation and water conservation.

He said he had directed to carry out an integrated study to earn from carbon credit by controlling the production of carbon, methane and other ozone gases.

Mr Khattak said in view of the worsening global climatic conditions and the challenges they posed, his government had launched a programme to plant a billion saplings in the province. He said over 250 million saplings would be planted this year.

Mr Luis Fernandes-Reyes of Senamco UAE, Mohammad Faisal Janjua of PAL Group, Brig (r) Saeed Sharif of Sundus industrial zones, environmentalists Mohammad Bilal, Col Shahid, principal secretary to chief minister Dr Shahzad Khan Bangash and secretary local government and rural development Jameel Ahmed were in attendance.-APP