Two birds, one stone

Before Independence, most of the cities in the present Pakistan had their own electric generation companies that supplied electricity to the cities like Rawalpindi, Shahdara and Faisalabad. These companies continued working for many years even after Partition. The cities were self-sufficient in electric energy, before Wapda took over the generation and distribution of electricity. Today most of these cities are only good at producing tonnes of garbage every day without any proper disposal of the same. These heaps of garbage can be disposed of by a) being put in a landfill and converted into manure and b) being used in incinerators to produce electricity with a provision that all the harmful gases should be properly treated so that carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide and other gases are not mixed with the atmosphere.

So far no action is being taken either by the federal government or provincial governments to chalk out a plan to dispose of the garbage that is being produced in every city in a profitable manner. Following old traditions, each city should have its own electric generation company based on the garbage which is being produced in that city. This way not only the city will be cleaned environmentally, but will also meet the partial requirement of energy of that particular city.

Lt Col Arshad Nasim Qureshi

Rawalpindi