Sindh govt announces to launch clean Karachi campaign

KARACHI: Following intense pressure from the federal government, media and sections of the civil society, the Sindh government has woken up to play a leadership role in removing tonnes of garbage littering the streets of Karachi, turning the once City of Lights into the "garbage capital: of the country.

The announcement to this effect was made by Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain who said the Sindh government will make efforts to clear Karachi of municipal waste to a large extent in one month. The Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said the cleanliness drive would be launched on September 21 disposing most of the city's garbage in just one month.

He said efforts would be made to enhance the garbage disposal capacity of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) from 5,000 tonnes to 16,000 tonnes on a daily basis. The local government minister said the Sindh government would establish makeshift garbage transfer stations at different locations of the city from where through a proper disposal mechanism the municipal waste would be dumped in the landfill sites.

The city is grappled by myriads of civic issues of which garbage disposal and storm drain clearing are only two but the last two months bore testimony as to how half baked and populous measures by the federal government, abdication of duty by the Sindh government and the mayor who is waiting for miracles to happen, simply complicated matters for the Karachiites who daily struggle with the overflowing sewage, flies and stinking garbage strewn all along.