Daily Times

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has invited Netherlands top companies to establish waste-to-energy projects in Karachi and use latest technology to de-pollute Manchhar.

This was disclosed in a meeting held between Ambassador of Netherlands Willem Wouter Plomp, Trade Advisor Hammad Raza, Trade Counsellor Yasir Farooqui and CM here Friday.

CM Special Assistant on Investment Syed Qasim Naveed and Principal Secretary to CM Fayaz Jatoi attended the meeting. The ambassador told the chief minister that Netherlands companies were interested in investing and establishing `Waste-to-Energy’ projects in Karachi. “We have one of the top companies in the world working in the waste to energy sector,” he disclosed.

CM said that over 11000 tons of waste was generated in the city and it could produce 200 MW energy. The chief minister directed Minister Energy Imtiaz Shaikh to meet with the team of Netherlands and finalize the modus operandi for the proposed project. Meanwhile, he also directed Special Assistant on Investment Syed Qasim Naveed to hold a separate meeting with the investors of the Netherlands so such a project could be moved forward.

The Netherlands diplomat also offered investment and operation of a waste management project in the city. He said that the Netherlands companies have expertise in waste management and their expertise is known all over the world.

At this the chief minister said that his special assistant on Investment would also discuss waste management projects with their team.

The Chief Minister said that Manchhar Lake, located in his constituency, Sehwan, was one of the largest lakes of the world. He said that due to disposal of saline water and some other issues the entire lake has turned polluted.

Hundreds of fishermen used to fish in the lake have become jobless. “If the lake is depolluted hundreds of fishermen would return to their jobs and its water could be used for drinking and irrigation purposes,” Shah said.

The ambassador told the chief minister that he would send experts to visit the lake and would give technical advice so that a project could be made to clean it.The meetings between the Netherlands investors and experts are being fixed with the concerned officers to finalize the project.

Meanwhile, as many as four more patients of coronavirus died overnight bringing the death toll to 8,062 and 495 new cases emerged when 23,745 tests were conducted.

This was stated by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in a statement issued here on Friday. He said that four more patients of COVID-19 lost their lives lifting the death toll to 8,062 that constituted 1.4 percent death rate.

Shah said that 23,745 samples were tested which detected 495 cases that constituted 2 percent current detection rate, adding that so far 7,906,235 tests have been conducted against which 563,839 cases were diagnosed, of them 95.1 percent or 536,266 patients have recovered, including 23,665 overnight.

The CM said that currently 19,511 patients were under treatment, of them 19,321 were in home isolation, 9 at isolation centers and 181 at different hospitals. He added that the condition of 170 patients was stated to be critical, including 16 shifted to ventilators.