Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, through district administrations, has documented each and every heap of garbage in Karachi and directed all the deputy commissioners to start a month-long special campaign on September 21 and clean what he said “my Karachi”.
He said this on Tuesday while talking to media just after performing the launching ceremony of the Sindh Strategic Sector Plan (2016-2016) unveiled by the Local Government & Public Health’s engineering department at a local hotel.
The programme was attended by Minister Shabir Bijarani, Minister Local Government Syed Nasir Shah, Chairperson P&D Nahid Shah, Secretary LG Roshan Shaikh, Secretary PHE Niaz Abbasi, Country Representative UNICEF Aida Gima and members of the civil society.
He said that he had held a meeting with the commissioner and his deputy commissioners of Karachi and it was attended by chief secretary Mumtaz Shah and the relevant provincial ministers to work out a detail strategy to launch the ‘Clean My Karachi’ campaign. “We decided to document the entire heaps of garbage, their location and size through pictures and written material,” he said.
Shah said that in the next meeting the deputy commissioners would come up with the documents and photographs of the garbage lying at different locations in the city. “I have told the deputy commissioners that I would provide them dumpers, shovels, loaders, trucks and trolley and other required machinery and they just 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, he said and added this would make a difference and every resident of this beautiful city would witness it.
The chief minister urged the federal government to stay away from the campaign because it had aggravated the situation instead of improving it. Quoting the example of the KPT ground located in front of the American Consulate, he said that the people of Ali Zaidi started dumping garbage there. This caused flies, mosquitoes and foul smell in the entire area, he said.
He added that similar irresponsible work was done in other areas of the city, and he then spoke to 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 a landfill site.
Shah said he would release the figures about how many tons of garbage the Sindh Solid waste Management has dumped at the landfill sites and how much garage Clean Karachi people would dump there and how much garbage other civic agencies had thrown there. “We have a weighing machine at the landfill aite and it maintains the record properly,” he said.
Meetings with DCs
The chief minister held a meeting with the deputy commissioners and they gave him their detailed plan.
District Central
It has five subdivisions -- New Karachi, North Karachi, Gulberg, Liaquatabad and Nazimabad -- with 51 union committees. The population of the district is 2,971,626. Around 1,800 to 2,000 tons of garbage 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.
District West
District 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 is lying at different places such as Machhar Colony, Bhutta Village and Baldia.
District East
East has four subdivisions and 31 union councils with a population of 2,907,467. It subdivisions are Ferozeabad, Jamshed Quarter, Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Gulzar-e-Hijri. Heaps of garbage have emerged in Akhtar Colony, Manzoor Colony, Azam Basti, Chenesar Goth, Mehmoodabad, Jacob Line, Martin Road, Nishtar Road, Fatima Jinnah Colony and other areas.
The authorities have planned to set up temporary GTS where they would dump garbage temporarily and then it will be shifted to a landfill site.
District Malir
This district has eight subdivisions -- Airport, Shah Mureed, Murad Memon, Ibrahim Hyderi, Gadap, Bin Qasim, Korangi Creek and Malir Cantt. It has a population of 2,008,901, including a rural population of 855,285. There are heaps of garbage at Majeed Colony, Muslimabad, Cattle Colony, Ghazi Brohi Goth, Bhittaiabad, Jaffer Tayyar Society, Gaghar and various other areas.
Korangi District
Korangi has four subdivisions -- Korangi, Landhi, Shah faisal and Model Colony -- with 37 union councils. It has 134 katchra kundis but 280 are more required as reported by the 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.
District South
It has subdivisions such as Arambagh, Saddar, Civil Line, Darden and Lyari. Comparatively, the South district is cleaner than the other districts, but it has garbage 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 the 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.
Water is as precious as gold Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah speaking at the launching of a number of policies -- Drinking Water Supply Policy, Sanitation Policy, Behaviour Change and Communication Strategy and Drinking Water Situation and Hygiene Sindh Strategic Sector Plan 2016-2016 -- said that the main aim of launching these policies was to create awareness in all sectors of the society regarding the importance of water, and draw a road map for our progress and future planning in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals to ensure access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities in Sindh.
He said water was one of the most essential things for humans to survive. “As our population is growing, pressure to tap more and more resources is also increasing, which leads to the overuse and exploitation of all natural resources,” he said.
He added that keeping in mind the water scarcity we must change our behaviour accordingly, and plan a better world and a fresh environment for our future generations. “We as individuals can play our part in building up this awareness among the society. Today, let’s declare that water is as precious as gold and we must not waste it,” he said.