Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh government’s sight in the milieu for creating Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) is backlash on its ill-natured policy.

Murad Ali Shah, Chief Minister Sindh, who is also Chairman of SSWMB has hasted an effort to earn name for cleaning Karachi from heaps of filth elsewhere other cities in Sindh has inflicted millions of rupees loss to the pubic tax money, members of civil society and experts on solid waste management articulated.

“A private Chinese company has been awarded contract for collection of garbage dumped in roadside dustbins and disposing it at transit of South and East districts of Karachi at a cost of $24.40 million annually”. The Company is currently lifting 675 tonnes of garbage daily from district south out of a total daily accumulation of more than 12,000 tonnes of garbage in city.

The job to transit the garbage to landfill sites at Jam Chakro and Gon Pass is an additional responsibility of private contractors, which means another cut on public tax, Dr Shaukat Ali, former senior Director Municipal Services Karachi Metropolitan Corporation informed.

Despite more than accumulation of 12,000 tonnes of garbage a day in Karachi, city has no Garbage Transfer Station (GTS). The garbage is mostly found littered around the roads and streets. This situation is disgusting on the part of Sindh government.

Neither the district Municipal Corporations (DMCs) nor Cantonment Boards or SSWMB appeared sensitised to it.

The garbage collection job of six DMCs and Chinese company along with supervisory work of SSWMB is meant to run parallel organisations to perform the same function leads to bad governance and lack of responsibility and accountability, Qamar Qureshi, President Economic Forum Pakistan commented.

Attur Das Sajnani, Director General SSWMB while expressing his point of view on the subject matter explained the object of Board is to establish integrated Solid Waste Management System in all cities of Sindh.

The SSWMB is responsible for collection and disposal of municipal sold waste, industrial solid waste, hospital waste and agriculture waste in the entire province ofSindh.

However, Board is required to take over solid waste management function gradually from the councils and other bodies and till such time DMCs will continue to manage the solid waste in their respective areas.

Board has to pay an amount of almost $29 per tonne for collecting solid waste from front point and disposing it at transit, which means more than $435 per truck is being paid to Chinese Company in foreign exchange.

He further disclosed that so far the Board has not assigned any operational work except maintaining garbage mainly sites namely Jam Chakro and GondPass landfill sites, where 40 percent of garbage is being brought. He disclosed that the remaining garbage mainly ends up in different nullas or is burnt locally. The work on a third landfill site at Dhabeji is being under process.

Board has been created under SSWMB Act, 2014 with functions assigned to entity-collection and disposal of solid waste, arrange for effective delivery of sanitation service and to provide free environment and deal with other relevant matters.

According to report of Water Commission of Inquiry, it has held DMCs responsible for poor management of solid waste.

Things have changed a lot during last two-three decades, not only in Karachi or Pakistan, but also in almost whole of the developing world, collection of night soil manually and its transportation through bucket or wheelbarrows is story of the past sewerage system.

Lahore has taken lead and government has outsourced the solid waste management services to a Turkish Company besides many other cities of Punjab which are also working on same pattern.