President’s Environment Day Message: Conserve environment to face impending challenges

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has called upon the public to rally round the Government towards its march to protect and conserve the environment to face the impending challenges in the millennium.

In his message to mark the World Environment Day today, the President stressed that awareness programs on how to live in harmony with the environment to reduce environmental problems should be implemented at large. Such programs should educate people to be sensitive towards the environment and their responsibility towards society, he said.

The President said that his Government has given priority to protect and conserve the flora and fauna under the theme ‘Nilla pirunu Ratak’ to pass on an environmentally rich country to the future generations. To fulfil these objectives, the Government has declared an Environmental Week from October 1 to 7 every year, the message said.

President Rajapaksa said that many environmental and ecological problems have emerged due to haphazard development and human activities thereby affecting the sensitivity of the country’s wild life and forestry. “Therefore, I believe that all programs implemented during the Environment Week would directly lay the foundation towards a firm policy on environmental conservation”, the President said.