CIIT-ATD

World Environment Day Celebrated at CIIT Abbottabad

Department of Environmental Sciences, 5 June 2009

June 5 is the World’s Environment Day, a day that is of extreme importance for everyone as the quality of life is linked to the state of the environment. CIIT Abbottabad is playing its due role in eliminating the environmental hazards for making this planet a worth living place. A series of seminars have been conducted since the start of year 2009 to raise awareness among the people about environment related issues.
Continuing the tradition, CIIT Abbottabad celebrated the “World Environment Day”
on June 5, 2009. Department of Environmental Sciences (DES), Environmental Management Unit (EMU), COMSATS Literary Society (CLS), Environmental Volunteer Organization (EVO) and Earth Sciences Program (ERS) actively participated in organizing different events to stimulate awareness about environment. The theme for the Environment Day of year 2009 was “Your Planet Needs You - Unite to Combat Climate Change”. These activities invited contribution from people of all walks of life, including students of CIIT Abbottabad, students of other educational institutions of Abbottabad, neighboring people of the CIIT campus and political and public office bearers. Dr. Mohammad Amjad Sabir, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences was the organizer of the event.
The proceedings started with recitation of the Holy Quran. Dr. Amjad Sabir welcomed all the guests and threw light on the importance of the day.
Following successful events took place:
Declamation Contest                        
The program started with a bilingual declamation contest organized by CLS. The competition was planned for the students of educational institutions of Abbottabad. This session was chaired by Dr. Mohammad Amjad Sabir.  Dr. Amjad Hassan, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Mr. Aamir Naqvi were the judges of the competition.

The debate was presided over by the President of COMSATS Literary Society (CLS), Mr. Kamran Taj. A lively discussion took place between the students and valuable views were exchanged on the topics under discussion. The topics were

• “Development not at the cost of Environment (English)”
• “Janay kia nasl thi dunya main dhuwan chor gaee (Urdu)”

Audience took keen interest in the competition and paid due attention to speakers. City School Abbottabad was declared the winner team and individual prizes were given to the following:

English Competition:

Urdu Competition:

Environment Awareness Campaign                         
EVO and CIIT Abbottabad actively participated in the activities planned for World Environment Day with a solid theme of “Environment Protection” under the kind supervision of Mr. Naim Rashid. The students of 5th semester of Bachelors of Environmental Sciences Program of CIIT Abbottabad prepared different brochures highlighting the current needs, effective measures and suggestions to save energy, water and to manage waste. These brochures were distributed not only in CIIT Abbottabad but among different people outside the campus as well.

The students prepared different dustbins with biodegradable material and showed them to the community. EVO along with teachers and students made a promise not to limit such activities for one day but to keep the candle of “save environment” lightened through out the year.

Cleanliness in the Surrounding Area
The students of Earth Sciences Program of CIIT Abbottabad took the responsibility of meeting public office bearers and political/ influential persons who can make difference in the current situation of cleanliness in the vicinity of CIIT Abbottabad. Under this program they could hardly manage to see the TMO Abbottabad due to busy schedule of the officials even after their hard efforts. Students of ERS requested TMO to take special interest in the cleaning/ sanitation of the roads leading to CIIT Abbottabad. TMO was requested to arrange for clearing the garbage dumps on regular basis and appoint responsible employees for the daily cleaning jobs. He assured the students to do so for avoiding any future chance of complaint.

Activities of Environmental Management Unit (EMU)
The EMU had arranged different activities like “Dustbin” making competition, “Picture Caption Competition”, “Theme Song Composition and Singing Contest” and “Lets Clean the Campus” campaign. The purpose of all these activities was to bring environmental awareness among the students of the campus. The dustbin making competition was mandatory for all semesters of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Earth Sciences Program. The theme for this competition was to decorate the dustbins provided by EMU with the help of reusable waste material in order to project the importance of waste and its usage in the field of environment. The first three position holders of dustbins making competition were BES-IV, ERS 1-B and MS-ES-II respectively. For picture caption competition three pictures were displayed depicting burning environment issues. Students and faculty members of all departments actively participated in this competition. The best captions for picture 1, 2 and 3 were provided by Fasiha Safdar Khan (MS-ES-II), Maliha Shah (BES-5) and Zainab Khalid (BES-4) respectively and the best captions for all three pictures were given by Dr. Javed Iqbal, thus winning the faculty competition. Ali Salman of MS-ES-II and Muhammad Saqib of BTN-8 won the “Theme Song Composition and Singing Contest”. The lyricist of the song was Romana Jamshed, a member of EMU.

Conference on “Save Energy Save Environment”
In the afternoon session, a conference entitled “Save Energy Save Environment” was presided over by the acting Head of Department of Environmental Sciences Department,  Dr. Amir Haider Malik. Two speakers from two different corners of the society were invited. Mr. Mohammad Riaz, Assistant Professor, National Center of Excellence in Geology Peshawar delivered a talk on “Carbon Sequestration”. His talk was followed by a question answer session. The students and faculty of CIIT Abbottabad took keen interest in the discussion. The second speaker, Chacha Abdul Latif was an Environmental Activist who has won “Conservation Award 2003” for his five decades efforts of conserving pine forest in Bakot, Hazara.  He shared his experiences with the students and motivated them to find solution for the environmental problems. His address and efforts were greatly admired and appreciated by the faculty and students.

Closing Ceremony                                                                
The closing ceremony started at 4:30 pm. Dr. Amjad Farid Hasnu, Professor, Department of Management Sciences, CIIT Abbottabad was the guest of honor for the ceremony.  
CLS staged a drama written by Mr. Kamran Taj and directed by Aamir Naqvi. The drama was related to the environmental problems being faced by our society. The hard work of the actors and powerful script proved to be very successful in conveying the message.   Winners of competitions and participants of the conference were awarded with shields, souvenirs and certificates after this theater. The guest of honor appreciated the theme behind the full day activity and also admired the efforts made by the Department of Environmental Sciences for this vivacious event. The activities were closed with the vote of thanks by Professor Dr. Amir Haider Malik.