Sindh asks federal agencies to help dispose of their waste in Karachi

Sindh Environment and Law Adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab has demanded that the federal land-owning agencies in Karachi, including the cantonment boards, DHA, KPT and Pakistan Railways, should engage the Sindh government in properly disposing of the municipal waste generated in their respective territories at the two main landfill sites of the city.

He raised this demand on Thursday as he along with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmakers led by MNA Aftab Siddiqui visited the landfill site of Jam Chakro to check the performance of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) in proper disposal of the waste Karachi generates.

The adviser said that without these federal land-owning agencies doing their job to properly dispose of their municipal waste at the landfill sites, the campaign to clean Karachi would remain incomplete as a massive volume of garbage would be seen piled up in the city without being attended.

He said the waste disposal mechanisms of the federal entities in Karachi should work under the composite system of the SSWMB. He said that apart from the federal agencies in Karachi, districts of Korangi and Central did not work under the SSWMB and they had to use their own mechanisms to dispose of garbage in their jurisdictions at the landfill sites.

Wahad said the SSWMB had been transporting over 12,000 tons of garbage daily to the landfill sites. The visit to the landfill site revealed that the previous day 252 dump trucks had brought garbage to the site. Of these 252 dumpers, 221 belonged to the SSWMB and only 31 belonged to different federal entities in the city. Nine trucks of Bahria Town also reached the landfill site.

The federal land-owning agencies whose trucks reached the landfill site included the Cantonment Board Clifton, Cantonment Board Faisal, Cantonment Board Malir and Karachi Port Trust. The record showed that no garbage was brought from the territories that were under the control of federal agencies like the Pakistan Railways, Port Qasim Authority and Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority.

The adviser said the 252 dump tracks contained around 9,500 tons of garbage which was offloaded at the landfill site. He said Karachi was still facing the problem of unattended garbage having a volume of 1,600,000 tons and the cleanliness drive kicked off by Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi should not have ended merely after removing 12,000 tons of waste from city.

He added that a proper boundary wall would be constructed at the landfill site so that garbage being dumped there did not end up in the adjoining areas.

He conceded that the problem of an illegal human settlement did exist at the Jam Chakro landfill site, but if in case the government took any action against I, an issue would emerge in the media.

He said the chief minister said had announced that after Muharram-ul-Haram, garbage would be collected from the city on the indiscriminate basis under a composite strategy. “People belonging to the Tehreek-e-Insaf should avoid doing politics over the issue of garbage as there is no doubt waste is being collected from Karachi. We have to work together to get this job done. Whatever is the responsibility of the Sindh government, it is being performed in a better way.”