Modern waste management system in capital remains an elusive dream

Islamabad : The dream of installing the first-ever modern solid waste management system in the federal capital still remains unrealized, apparently due to financial constraints and bureaucratic snags.

The waste management system, promised by Mayor Islamabad Sheikh Anser Aziz a couple of years ago, was meant to ensure clean and green environment across the city with scientific handling of the total garbage, generated by its urban and rural areas. Unfortunately, consensus among the major stakeholders could not be developed in the past which caused an inordinate delay in execution of the project,” a top official in the MCI Sanitation Wing told this agency on Sunday.

He asserted that the Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad (MCI) had floated a tender in national dailies during February this year to invite bids for materializing the project but it was cancelled due to the intervention of the Ministry of Climate Change. He said the ministry had raised some technical objections and asked the MCI to carry out a feasibility study before initiating the project.

It also stressed over the establishment of scientific dumping site before installation of the modern solid waste management system, the official added.

The silver lining is that the project has entered into the advance stage as the corporation is all set to hire a consultant for carrying out its feasibility study, he said, adding the MCI would open a technical bid of Rs300 million on April 30 to get the consultancy advisory on the scope modern solid waste management system. He said the consultant was being hired to devise the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to streamline the process of garbage collection and its disposal.

The expert would chalk out a comprehensive plan which included financial model and survey of rural areas for household waste collection, he added.

The official said the entire process of materializing the project would take several months. To a query, he said the establishment of permanent landfill site in the federal capital was also part of this project for which a land near Sangjani had been selected after carrying out an Environment Impact Assessment report of the area.

The EAI had been submitted to the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency to obtain the No Objection Certificate, he added.