Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) is geared up to monitor the process of waste disposal in Karachi’s two districts – East and South – through a digital satellite system likely to be launched by July 2018, officials of the board have revealed.

For the purpose, around 16,553 dustbins have been placed for disposal of garbage in the two districts, while another 5,000 dustbins would be placed at a later stage. Also over 191 vehicles for collection of waste are in action while more vehicles will be imported from China, said officials.

The job will be monitored through a Satellite Board office in Muhammad Ali Society on Tipu Sultan Road.

Every dustbin with it placement spot and vehicle’s registration number, responsible for lifting garbage, has been marked while timings of lifting garbage had also been added to the system for convenience of the area people.

Residents of these areas will be able to download the application of the system, which will allow them to see the disposal of waste, they added.

SSWMB’s Information Technology Director Muhammad Nawaz said that a mobile company was designing the software for the purpose and they would complete the process by July 2018.

Around six garbage transfer stations are under construction and hopefully they will be completed within two months, he said, adding that workshops at four different points in the city would also be monitored through the system, he added.

A Chinese organisation, Changie Kangjie Sanitation Engineering Company, already engaged in collecting garbage from districts South and East has been given the contract for the activity, he maintained.

Yong Zhijun, general manager of company, while highlighting the significance of the project said that progress of the department would become better and activity of everyone on this job would be monitored under this system.

Waste Board Secretary Nadir Khan was of the view that the project would be helpful in streamlining whole system of garbage collection. Theft of dustbins and round the clock performance of employees would be monitored through the satellite system, he said.

SSWMB Managing Director Taha Farooqui said that once completed the system would be extended to districts West and Malir in near future.

Administrations of cantonment boards, Clifton, Saddar and Faisal are already lifting garbage from their respective areas for disposal to landfill sites. Manora, Malir and Korangi Creek administration had been asked to dispose of their respective areas garbage to landfill sites, he said. New Sabzi Mandi has started disposing garbage at landfill site, he said.

Railway, Civil Aviation Authority, Karachi Port Trust, Port Qasim, Steel Mills, Export Processing Zone and West Wharf were not putting garbage of their respective areas at landfill sites and these entities were requested to follow the decorum of the system, he added.

The city produces more than 14,000 tonnes of garbage on a daily basis and lifting is around 9,000 tonnes, according to the board’s statistics.

Published in Daily Times, May 16^th 2018.