Despite all the tall claims of cleanliness in the city by the authorities concerned, almost every locality of the city is in pathetic sanitary condition, causing great difficulties for the citizens besides posing health hazards.
The insanitary conditions are aggravating with the each passing day as both, the Faisalabad Municipal Corporation (FMC) and the Faisalabad Waste Management Company (FWMC), seem to be helpless to ensure cleanness in the city of more than 4.2 million people.
The incapacity of the FWMC due to lack of necessary equipment can be gaged from the fact that it can lift only 1,050 tonnes waste out of 1,700 tonnes daily produced in the city. The situation has raised several question marks on the priorities of the government.
The prevailing insanitary conditions not only pose threat to the atmosphere and ecological system of the city but also triggered an outbreak of different diseases in the areas where people are left helpless facing health hazards.
Although major roads apparently seem to be in better sanitary conditions but most of the localities are in very deplorable condition. Among these localities Ameen Town, Allan's Iqbal Collony, Yousif Abad, Hadair Abad, Jamal Town, Saif Abad, Raza Abad, Nishtabad, Mansoora Abad, Warks Pura, Barkat Abad, Modan Pura, Malikpur, Gobindpuea, Hayat Abbad, D Type Colony, Ayub Colony, Panaj Par, Lakar Mandi, Kaleem Shaheed Colony, Railway Colony, Shaheen Abbas and Fareh Abad are in terrible conditions. In each and every corner of these localities especially the open spaces, one will find heaps of garbage and waste.
"In the last so many years we have seen no one from the FMWC to clean garbage and collect refuse. So consequently we have hired the services of a man who collects garbage and waste from houses on his donkey-cart and charges Rs100 per month each house. Likewise, there is no concept of sweeping streets which are full of litter and and garbage," Muhammad Kamran, a resident of Ameen Town, told The Express Tribune.
"It is very unfortunate that both the FMC and the FWMC are not taking the issue of insanitary conditions seriously," Zaman Khan, a senior citizen, commenting on sanitary conditions of the city.
"Only cosmetic measures are being taken by the agencies concerned whereby cleaning of only main city roads is being carried out while rest of the roads are ignored altogether which has aggravated sanitary conditions and are the cause of spreading a number of diseases," he said while lamenting the authorities for their sluggish response on addressing the issue of cleanliness in the city.
"The sanitary staff has been put at the disposal of union councils chairmen and by and large sanitary workers are assigned other duties by them (UC chairmen) for their political purposes and personal gains and there is no one to keep a check on this,” he added.
When contacted, Municipal Corporation Mayor Muhammad Razak Malik told The Express Tribune the FWMC has recently purchased 16 compactor vehicles along with containers with a budget of Rs48 million to lift waste and garbage.
“Now, this capacity of lifting waste would be enhanced to 1,350 tonnes. More resources are being provided to the FWMC by the provincial government for cleanliness in the city.” He claimed that scientific methodology was being used for better cleanliness system to come up the expectations of the citizen. He said the city has been distributed in different zones for better management and cleanliness. A strategy was being devised to check the daily performance of the staff.
According to FWMC Managing Director Ammad Gill, a big compactor vehicle has the capacity of lifting 8 tonnes of waste while a small compactor vehicle can lift 5 tonnes of waste. He said the safe transportation of waste would be made possible through these covered compactor vehicles and the issue of garbage and litter on city roads would be resolved.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 2nd, 2017.
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