WB agrees to construct new landfill site in Karachi

The World Bank on the recommendation of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has allocated $10 million for making the Sindh Solid Waste Management Authority (SSWMA) a world class organisation in solid waste management.

This was stated in a meeting held between the chief minister and an eight-member World Bank delegation led by it global director for urban, resilience and land practice groups Dr Sameh Naquib Wahba Tadros. The delegation included Manager Urban Sector in South Asia Dr Catalina Marulanda, and Manager Resilience Practice in South Asia Christophe Pusch.

The chief minister was assisted by Chairperson P&D Naheed Shah, Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, Home Secretary & PD Karachi Neighbourhood Improvement Programme (KNIP) Kazi Kabir and others.

He said that the Sindh Solid Waste Management Authority had been established recently. “It is a new organistaion and would definitely take time to achieve expertise, but even then there is a dire need to operate it in a scientific manner and make it as a leading solid waste management organisation in the country,” he said.

At this, World Bank Global Director Dr Dameh said that in Karachi Neighbourhood Improvement Programme (KNIP) there was a provision for solid waste management. He agreed to allocate $10 million for capacity building, technical expertise and construction of a new landfill site for the SSWMA.

The chief minister said that he was keen to develop a most modern and environment-friendly landfill site on the outskirts of the city. “This landfill site must be equipped with all the necessary machinery, gadgets, equipment and technical staff and useful for power generation,” he said.

He added that instead of spending millions of rupees on garbage lifting he was planning to make garbage as fund generation work. “If we achieve this target then the SSWMA will become a self-sufficient organisation,” he said. On the request of the chief minister, the World Bank agreed to construct a landfill site over an area of 500 acres on the outskirts of the city.

Resilience project

In the meeting between the chief minister and the World Bank delegation, another project which came under discussion was the Sindh Resilience Project (SRP).

The SRP is a Rs9,984 million project under which irrigation works, including six smalls dams, are being constructed. This project deals with flood protection, small recharge dams to address drought and flash flooding risks and to provide technical assistance to the irrigation department.

Work on six dams at Konkar, Jhang Shahi, Sabusan and Sankar, Bansar/Rathi and Naig has been completed by 77 percent. These dams are located in Malir, Jamshoro, Thatta, Sujawal, Dadu, Matiari and Tharparkar districts.

The World Bank team said that with the construction of a dam in Malir, the water table has improved tremendously. This water table has come up from 400 feet to 100 feet after the current rains, and a similar effect it would put in Kohistan and Tharparkar areas.

Under the SRP, different activities are being initiated. They are development of a Disaster Management Information System, establishment of a provincial emergency operational system, establishment of mobile units, disaster/emergency communication system, heatwave resilience through urban forestation, agriculture hazards assessment, vulnerable assessment of industrial hazard disaster, school-based disaster risk management, an early warning system and sea intrusion assessment.

Briefing on KNIP

About the Karachi Neighbourhood Improvement Programme, its PD Kazi Kabir told the World Bank team that development work around Arts Council had been started. In the area, a new drainage system is being constructed. Work on the drainage system is in progress while the road in front of the Arts Council has been constructed and work on a parking lot is in progress in front of the Karachi Museum.