City to get second biogas plant next month, says SSWMB chief

Karachi is set to commission its second waste-to-energy plant next month under the Sindh government’s drive to ensure that the 14,000 tonnes of municipal waste generated daily in the city is disposed of sustainably and in an environmentally friendly manner, reducing the amount of trash ending up at landfill sites.

Speaking as the keynote speaker at a seminar held at a hotel, Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) Managing Director Tariq Ali Nizamani announced that the new biogas plant, capable of converting organic and food waste into renewable energy, is being established at Bagh Ibne Qasim in Clifton.

He said the facility, with a generation capacity of 1,000 cubic metres of biogas, would provide cooking fuel to nearby households and help power lights within Bagh Ibne Qasim. The city mayor has allocated the land for the project, he added.

Nizamani said the SSWMB has already established the city’s first biogas generation plant in District South that is also aimed at promoting energy recovery from organic waste. Highlighting the challenges in the city’s waste collection system, he disclosed that 13,000 to 15,000 families are engaged in unauthorised scavenging activities: collecting recyclable materials from municipal waste and dumping the remaining refuse at undesignated sites.

He urged law enforcement agencies to strictly enforce Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code to curb the operations of illegal waste pickers and drug addicts involved in the unlawful dumping and burning of trash.

He suggested empowering SSWMB field officers to act as inspectors with the authority to impose fines for irresponsible disposal of waste in residential and commercial areas so that citywide cleanliness can be maintained.

He also emphasised the need to enforce the ban on polythene shopping bags, citing their destructive impact on the city’s drainage and sewerage systems, particularly during heavy rains.

He proposed that at least one acre of land in every town be reserved for establishing waste banks and plastic recycling facilities to ensure the long-term sustainability of the city’s waste management operations.

He informed the audience that the city generates 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes of construction debris every day that falls outside the SSWMB’s direct responsibility. He called on civic and land-owning agencies, including the Karachi Development Authority, the Lyari Development Authority, the Malir Development Authority and the Sindh Building Control Authority, to ensure proper collection, storage, transportation and disposal of construction waste across the city.

He revealed that the SSWMB has also partnered with UK-based NGOs to install two waste-to-compost plants, each with a 25-tonne daily generation capacity, in Baldia Town and Sharafi Goth.

He said that six modern garbage transfer stations and a state-of-the-art landfill site are being developed under the World Bank-assisted Solid Waste Emergency & Efficiency Programme to modernise the city’s waste management infrastructure.