Looking ahead: Waste management major challenge for local government

Capital lacks a proper landfill, treatment facility; hazardous waste being disposed of with domestic trash

ISLAMABAD:

Municipal waste management and supply of clean drinking water, especially in rural areas, will be among the key challenges for the upcoming local government bodies in Islamabad.

Residents in the municipal limits of Islamabad generate solid waste between 500 and 550 metric tonnes every day and approximately 750 metric tonnes if the rural areas of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) are also factored in.

Due to the lack of a proper landfill, the waste is dumped at open sites.

Unattended and exposed waste becomes a breeding place for disease-carrying organisms. There is also no mechanism to dispose hospital and other hazardous waste.

Waste management will, perhaps, be the biggest challenge for the local bodies.

Another unaddressed issue is that hazardous waste is being dumped alongside solid waste without any treatment or process.

Currently, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) only provides door to door waste collection service in Zone 1, which largely consists of the CDA-developed sectors. Waste management in zones 2,3,4 and 5 is unregulated.

Much of the waste from these zones ends up in streams and rivers.

The local government will have to introduce an integrated waste management mechanism to address this issue.

Experts say 80 per cent of medical waste can be disposed of the same way as domestic waste, but 10 to 20 per cent needs to be separately treated and disposed of.

With no hazardous waste management system in place, waste from the health care institutions is mixed up with municipal waste. Similarly, there is no mechanism for handling the industrial waste from sectors I-9 and I-10.

Water supply, purification issues

Ensuring water supply for domestic consumption and meeting the minimum purification standards will be another challenge for the local bodies.

Currently, The CDA is responsible for water supply in the urban areas and the ICT Administration takes care of rural areas. The latter operates around 60 water supply schemes, which are mostly governed by committees comprising locals.

Apart from summer water shortages, the authorities have been unable to maintain purification standards, with chlorinators not being replaced when required due to shortages of funds.

Residents have been protesting against faulty water filtration plants installed by the CDA in various sectors for years. Further, no chemical or biological process is being done, affecting the quality of drinking water.

Sewage and other waste from Murree and newly-developed colonies along the Murree Expressway has been released into Simli Dam for years. The dam is one of the major sources of drinking water for Islamabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2015.