SSWMB land to be cleared of encroachments

Waste management board briefs CM about garbage lifting in Karachi

KARACHI: A major portion of the land allocated to the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB), the authority responsible for the collection, transport and disposal of solid waste in Karachi, has been encroached upon by the land mafia.

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was informed about this during a meeting on the affairs of the SSWMB at CM House on Tuesday.

"Karachi is not a tribal area where people have developed their own states within a state. It looks like the police and local administration are not cooperating to take action against the land mafia," the CM said, giving a 48-hour ultimatum to the administration to evacuate the waste management board's land. He directed the Karachi commissioner and inspector-general of police to start operation against land grabbers and report back to him.

Shah also constituted a committee under Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro with the local government secretary, Karachi Development Authority (KDA) director-general and others as its members to resolve all issues related to the land of the SSWMB.



An SSWMB officer informed the meeting about unlawful occupation of the waste management board's land in District East. "We have 10 acres of land in Deh Gujhro near Sohrab Goth. When we started constructing a boundary wall, local land grabbers attacked our labourers, demolished the construction and stopped the work," he said. Shah expressed extreme displeasure at this and directed the land to be recovered within two days.

Similarly, the meeting was also informed about a six-acre landfill situated in Dhobi Ghat in District South. SSWMB officials said the land was earlier used as a landfill by the District Municipal Corporation (DMC) South and, later, it was handed over to the SSWMB for the same use. The officials added that when the SSWMB started construction on the site, some locals resisted.

The SSWMB managing director (MD) informed the CM that despite requests to the local police and anti-encroachment cell, no help was received by the board against land grabbers and work on the landfill had to be abandoned.

Citing another case pertaining to 11.47 acres of land in Korangi Sector 2, the SSWMB MD alleged that when the board tried to construct a boundary wall on the land, it was stopped by army personnel who claimed that it was their land. To this, the CM directed the chief secretary to check the records to ascertain the actual ownership of the land.

"I also want a detailed report on whether the KDA can allot land to any organisation," the CM said in the meeting.



Similar reports were presented by the SSWMB in the meeting regarding its land in Korangi Industrial Area, Landhi, Bin Qasim, Baldia Town and Malir. The CM ordered immediate removal of encroachments on the land. "What are the police and district administration doing? I will not spare anyone found negligent in removing encroachments," he said.

The CM was told that rehabilitation of existing landfill sites and their conversion into sanitary landfill sites was a very important component of integrated municipal solid waste management. It was informed that the revenue department had allocated two pieces of land of 500 acres each in Deh Jam Chakro and Gaond Pass areas for landfill sites. The SSWMB had taken over the operation and maintenance of both sites from the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and planned to rehabilitate and convert them into scientifically designed sanitary landfill sites as per international standards, the meeting was informed. The CM directed the administration to ensure that no one encroached upon the two locations.

Officials informed the meeting that the revenue department had handed over 3,000 acres of land for a landfill site near Dhabeji in 1996, adding that a garbage train was started to transport garbage from Karachi for disposal at that site but later, the scheme was abandoned and most of the land was encroached upon. The CM directed the KDA DG to present him a detailed report on the land near Dhabeji.

According to a statement issued by CM House, the SSWMB shared a plan during the meeting to reserve 200 acres of land for a hospital waste disposal site including an incinerator and 300 acres for industrial solid waste disposal. A consultant firm had already been hired which was carrying out feasibility study of the scheme, the meeting was told.

Earlier, the local government minister and SSWMB MD gave a presentation to the CM, informing him that the SSWMB was created for collection, transport and disposal of solid waste in Karachi and other cities and towns of the province in an efficient, scientific, holistic and integrated manner.



Total waste generation of Karachi was about 12,000 tons per day, of which 9,000 tons of waste was generated in areas under the administrative control the KMC and DMCs, Shoro said. The remaining 3,000 tons of waste was generated in areas of other civic administrative bodies such as the six cantonment boards, Sindh Industrial Trading Estate, Pakistan Railways and Civil Aviation Authority, the local government minister added.