Chinese, Spanish firms to manage solid waste in Central and Korangi districts

The Sindh government, through the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB), has signed two agreements for a solid waste management operation with Chinese and Spanish firms to collect and dump 3,500 tonnes of garbage from the Korangi and Central districts of Karachi from the second week of August.

Under one of the agreements, the Chinese firm would install a 40-megawatt waste-to-energy plant and also establish another plant to manufacture in Karachi machinery required for doing solid waste management work in the city.

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah presided over a joint meeting of officials of Chinese firm M/s Gansu and Spanish Firm M/s Urbaser at CM House on Monday, where an operational agreement was also signed with them.

The meeting was told that the solid waste management operation for District Korangi had been assigned to Chinese Firm Gansu. The Korangi district generates 1,920 tonnes of garbage daily.

The Chinese firm would deploy 2,000 sanitary workers and mobilise 500 pieces of sanitary machinery in the district to collect and dump the garbage at landfill sites.

Korangi Industrial Area will have a special mechanism to clean the area. The company would set up a complaint cell to receive and address public complaints in the district.

Power plant

The Chinese company would also install a 40-MW waste-to-energy power plant at a landfill site to generate electricity. The company would be given a separate contract for the purpose.

The chief minister termed the waste-to-energy project a historic achievement. He added that the electricity generation from Thar coal was the biggest achievement of the Sindh government and now it was achieving another milestone.

Industrial plant

The Chinese firm, Gansu Heavy Industry, the mother organisation of the Gansu Pakistan, also announced the establishment of an industrial plant to produce waste management-related machinery such as trollies, dustbins, a garbage binding system and such other articles. This industrial unit would also generate employment opportunities in the city.

District Central

The SSWMB signed a solid waste operational agreement with Spanish firm M/s Urbaser for District Central. It is the first company operating solid waste management in European countries.

District Central generates 1,920 tonnes of garbage daily. The firm would be responsible for collecting garbage and dumping it at the designated landfill site. It would deploy over 2,000 sanitary workers and 500 sanitary machinery workers in the district.

Since the Central district is thickly populated, the Spanish company would use special machinery to collect the garbage. Local Government Minister Nasir Shah, speaking on the occasion, said that with the handing over of the solid waste management operation of the Korangi and Central districts to the Chinese and Spanish firms, the entire city had been covered by the SSWMB.

The chief minister said that good governance was all about service delivery in an efficient and effective manner. “This is why my government has been implementing policies for improving service delivery at the grass roots-level, mostly centering around food security, provision of potable water, education, health care services, housing and civic amenities,” he said.

Shah said that his government was committed to improving overall living conditions and had clear targets to make Sindh safe, secure, healthy and literate. He added that water and sanitation were an important part of Pakistan’s International Human Rights commitments and Sustainable Development Goals targets and were therefore amongst top priorities of the provincial government.

He said the Sindh government had brought back peace to the city and had made Karachi a safe and secure place to live. “Now, in the wake of Covid-19, our prime focus has been to uplift the standard of public service delivery especially for essential services such as health and sanitation,” he said.

The CM said that the arrival of the reputable international firms whose reputation preceded them to operate in Karachi was a positive sign of the resolve of the Sindh government to improve the efficiency of public service delivery. He vowed that the same approach would be adopted for the expansion of solid waste management functions to other areas of the province.