Cleanliness plan: LWMC puts 3 proposals before CM’s review body

LAHORE: Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) has placed three future solutions with regard to cleaning the provincial metropolis before a review committee constituted by Chief Minister Usman Buzdar in his recent visit to the company’s head office.

Sources in the company revealed that the three future solutions proposed by LWMC’s management before the review committee included continuation of the existing model, collection of primary waste by LWMC and shifting it to landfill site through outsourcing and collection and disposal of entire waste by LWMC itself.

On August 31, 2019, the CM notified constitution of committee to review the affairs of LWMC and as per notification, Punjab minister for Finance was notified as the Chairman of the 13-member committee while its members are Salman Shah, Adviser to Chief Minister on Economic Affairs and Planning & Development, Chairman P&D Board, Provincial Secretary Finance, Provincial Secretary LG&CD, Commissioner Lahore, Chairman LWMC, MD LWMC, Asad Khalid, Head Corporate Finance Unit, Finance Department, General Manager Punjab Pension Fund, Mian Ejaz, Ex Civil Servant, Muhammad Rafique, ex DO Solid Waste Management Company and any other member to be co-opted.

On Wednesday, the first meeting of review committee was held at the LWMC head office in which Managing Director, LWMC, Ajmal Bhatti tabled three above mentioned future solutions. The committee discussed in detail the proposed solutions and announced deciding this issue in its next meetings.

Sources in LWMC claimed that the committee discussed future of staff of LWMC as well as the repercussions of future strikes in case the LWMC took charge of the city’s cleanliness itself in future. They also discussed business model of LWMC and suggested effective solutions for optimal utilisation of available and prospective resources without compromising quality. The committee also examined technical, legal and financial implications of termination of existing international contracts of LWMC as well as self sustainability proposals.

The committee also reviewed existing capacity of Lakhodair landfill and said the members will suggest a way forward for disposal and treatment of waste. The committee also called Urban Unit, which revealed that The Urban Unit conducted scientific assessment of the existing site using drone technology as per requirement of the Lahore Waste Management Company.

They said that the objective was to identify major shortcomings in the way of better site management, prepare guidelines for efficient use of site and also suggest remaining usable life of the existing site. They said that the study was carried out with the help of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) to conduct a detailed drone study of the site.

Furthermore, water table depth was assessed along with soil testing, they revealed, adding the results would be analysed to prepare guidelines for efficient and safe use of the site. For the purpose, different type of data was collected through droning that includes drone imagery, drone imagery individual tiles, Digital Terrain Model, Digital Surface Model, Contour – 1, 2, 5 & 10 m interval, Videography and Volume of waste dumped at different parts of the site.

This assessment is first of its kind in Pakistan where high-tech droning technology was used to assess a waste dumping site. The outcomes of assessment would be helpful in better operations at the site and extending its useful life. There are hundreds of dump sites in Punjab with at least 15 large size dump sites that require droning survey to help improving the situation on the said locations, they said.

In Lahore, collected waste was dumped at Mahmood Booti till 2016 and later it was dumped at Lakhodair Landfill & Dumping site. Initially it was built as a sanitary landfill, but lack of financial and technical resources converted the site into open dumping place with a few control measures.