KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah through district administration has documented each and every heap of garbage in the city and directed all deputy commissioners to start a month-long special campaign from September 21 to October 21 and clean what he said `My Karachi’.
He disclosed this on Tuesday while talking to media just after performing the launching ceremony of Sindh Strategic Sector Plan (2016-2016) unveiled by Sindh Local Government and Public Health Engineering Department here at a local hotel.
The programme was attended by Minister PHE Shabir Bijarani, Minister Local Government Syed Nasir Shah, Chairperson P&D Nahid Shah, Secretary LG Roshan Shaikh, Secretary PHE Niaz Abbasi, Country Representative of UNICEF Aida Gima and people of civil society.
He said that he had held a meeting with commissioner and deputy commissioners of Karachi which was attended by chief secretary Mumtaz Shah, and relevant provincial ministers to work out a detailed strategy to launch ‘My Karachi’ campaign. “We decided to document the entire heaps of garbage, their location and size through pictures and written material,” he said.
Murad Ali Shah said that in the next meeting the deputy commissioners came up with the documents and photographs of the garbage lying at different locations at the city. “I have told the deputy commissioners that I would provide them dumpers, shovels, loaders, trucks and trolleys and other required machinery for just they have to remove the garbage to temporary Garbage Transfer Stations (GTS) and then it would be further shifted to Landfill Sites,” he said.
The deputy commissioners are being provided Rs50 million each and from September 21 the clean 'My Karachi' campaign would be started and it would continue for a month, Mr Murad Shah said and added this would make a difference and every resident of this city would witness it.
The chief minister urged the federal government to stay away from its clean Karachi campaign because it has aggravated the situation instead of improving it. Quoting the example of KPT ground located in front of American Consulate, the chief minister said that the people of Ali Zaidi started dumping the garbage there. This led to an increase in flies, mosquitoes swarming the area while also filling the air with a foul smell, he said.
He added that similar irresponsible work was done in other areas of the city and then later addressed Federal Minister Ali Zaidi and requested him to stop his people from dumping garbage in open areas. He urged him to get it dumped at landfill sites instead.
Shah said he would release the figures of how much tons of garbage the Sindh Solid Waste Management has dumped at landfill site. “We have a weighing machine at landfill site and it maintains the record properly,” he said.
The chief minister had held meeting with deputy commissioners and they had given him their detailed plan.
Central: It has five sub divisions, New Karachi, North Karachi, Gulberg, Liaquatabad and Nazimabad with 51 union committees. The population of the district comes to 2,971,626. Around 1800 to 2000 tons of grabge is generated in this district against which its DMC has the capacity of lifting 800 to 100 tons. In this area 750 tons of garbage was lying in Gulberg, 550 tons in Liaquatabd, 400 tons in Nazimabad, 400 tons in North Nazimabad and 900 tons in new Karachi which would be lifted by the DCs.
West: West is the largest district in the city with seven subdivisions, Orangi, Baldia, Mominabad, Manghopir, Mauripur, and Harbour with 52 union councils. In this district around 70,000 tons of garbage heaps are lying at different places such as Machhar Colony, Bhutta Village, Baldia, and various other areas.
East: East has four subdivisions and 31 union councils with a population of 2,907,467. Its sub divisions are Ferozeabad, Jamshed Quarters, Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Gulzar-e-Hijri. Heaps of garbage have developed at Akhtar Colony, Manzoor Colony, Azam Basti, Chenesar Goth, Mehmoodabad, Jacobline, Martin Road, Nishtar Road, Fatima Jinnah Colony and at various other areas. They have planned to set up temporary GTS where they would dump garbage temporarily and then to be shifted to Landfill site.
Malir: This district has eight sub-divisions: Airport, Shah Mureed, Murad Memon, Ibrahim Hyderi, Gadap, Bin Qasim, Korangi Creek and Malir Cantt. It has a population of 2,008,901, including 855,285 rural population. There are heaps of Garbage at Majeed Colony, Muslimabad, Cattle Colony, Ghazi Brohi Goth, Bhittaiabad, Jaffer Tayar, Gaghar, and various other areas.
Korangi: Korangi has four sub-divisions, including Korangi, Landhi, Shah faisal and Model Colony with 37 union councils. It has 134 katcha kundis but 280 are more required as reported by deputy commissioner. There are 376 points from where heaps of garbage have to be lifted. The garbage is lying at Malir Colony, Chakra Goth, and various other areas.
South: It has subdivisions such as Arambagh, Saddar, Civil Line, Darden and Lyari. Comparatively South district was cleaner than the other districts even then it has garabge dumps at Agra Taj, New kalri, Liaquat Colony, Nawababd, Khadda Memon Society, Moosa Lane Baghdadi, Shah Baig Lane, Bihar Colony, Rangiwara and various other areas from where garbage would be lifted.
The chief minister has given go ahead to all the six DCs of the city to start the campaign and he would monitor each and every drive by visiting the area.