Garbage bins mar Rawalpindi’s beauty

Finding places for disposing of garbage is the greatest challenge the city leaders are facing. Despite a cleanliness drive every year, they are still battling a crisis in solid waste management.

“Rawalpindi civic bodies have failed to find suitable places to dispose of garbage that’s why we see piles of garbage everywhere in the city such as on the roads, sidewalks, and footpaths. Even open spaces are not spared,” says Hasan Reza.

“Apparently the civic bodies are confident of resolving the crisis soon but they are unaware that mere inspection of new sites to dump garbage is only part of the immediate solution rather they should explore the possibility of setting up new landfills as an alternative,” says Saulat Reza.

“The garbage crisis has nothing to do with development, but more with lack of planning. The situation is a public health emergency. The city authorities should try to improve the sanitation,” says Hasan Alvi.

“The city authorities should regularly take a round of the town. If they visit, marketplaces, streets, roads, and parks they will find that sanitation is not up to the mark. Cleanliness drive must be made a regular feature,” says Faiz Haider.

“I don’t know whether the master plan of the city does have any specific spots where garbage could be collected, or not, but it seems even if it exists it has not properly been followed. As a result, garbage bins with litter around them are marring its beauty,” says Hasrat Hussain.

“The problem is self-inflicted. City residents mostly throw their household waste outside the bins knowing well that the garbage bins attract cattle, cats, dogs, and scavengers,” adds Hasrat.

Garbage bins placed across the city do not match up with the architectural beauty of the city. A large part of the city does not have any places earmarked for keeping garbage bins and residents’ letters to the civic body office seeking identification of such places have failed to bring the desired results,” says Zahoor Ali. “The sites of garbage bins are never identified in consultation with the residents. A survey of sites selected for keeping the garbage bins will reveal that bins have been placed on roads, public land, and even near parks without any concrete platform,” says Naveed Ali.

“Due to this, garbage leaches into sub-soil water. This is in violation of norms to check the pollution of groundwater. As per the garbage management rules all over the world, garbage bins have to be placed atop raised concrete platforms with a slope to let the discharge flow to a sewerage line,” adds Naveed.

Shahid Hasan says, “I’m face-to-face with piles of garbage dumped on Shah Khalid Colony Service Road. This cannot be it. It just cannot.”