Rs20m fine imposed for illegal dumping

LAHORE : The Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) removed more than 262,000 tonne waste in 2018 across the City besides addressing over 61,500 public complaints.

LWMC Acting Managing Director Farrukh Butt said this while briefing the media about the yearly performance of the company here Wednesday. PTI leader Ajasim Sharif was also present.

The LWMC acting MD said the Enforcement Department imposed fine amounting to more than Rs 20 million in more than 12,000 instances of illegal dumping of waste. He said the company during the year also effectively launched Hospital Waste Management System, treating more than 20 tonne infectious waste on a daily basis.

LWMC is collecting hospital infectious waste from four hospitals. The rehabilitation process of old and closed dumpsite at Mehmood Booti was expedited in 2018 and more than 16,000 saplings were planted at the site, he said, adding a Chinese firm also expressed interest in installing a waste-to-energy plant of 40 MW capacity.

In 2018, Lahore Waste Management Company collected and incinerated more than 630 tonne infectious hospital waste according to the environmental guidelines. The efforts for modernizing the system of solid waste management in the country by Lahore Waste Management Company yielded results with the functioning of the region’s first-ever modern waste disposal facility at Lakhodair, Lahore.

LWMC launched 400 massive cleanliness and awareness campaigns across the City especially in the educational institutions, markets, parks and squares to sensitise the citizens about making use of waste bins while disposing their household waste.

The Lahore Waste Management Company launched its first-ever gas flaring project at the closed dumpsite at Mahmood Booti. For demonstration, LWMC has installed equipment, including a two-burner stove and a gas lamp, in an allied office to flare the gas round the clock. It is estimated that the dumpsite has potential to supply the combustible gas for at least next 7-10 years.

There are some possible opportunities for dumpsite gas utilisation as it can be supplied to autoclave facility as a substitute to natural gas for steam generation through boiler. The generated steam would then be utilised for sterilisation of hospital waste. The dumpsite gas can be supplied to the nearly LWMC facility to fulfil its electricity needs.

After treatment and purification, the gas can be utilised as a fuel substitute to CNG in vehicles. It can also be supplied to the nearby industries for power generation or heating purposes. LWMC has started work on the plan.

Lahore Waste Management Company also initiated offal-to-energy pilot project. The company took an initiative of installing a biogas plant in Gawala Colony, Rakh Chandrai, the LWMC acting MD said.