SSWMB set to take over waste management in Hyderabad

The board will hire private companies to work on the model of Karachi


Our Correspondent November 29, 2018
The board will hire private companies to work on the model of Karachi. PHOTO: FILE

HYDERABAD: The Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) has started the process of taking over the responsibility of waste collection and disposal from Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC). But it will take at least over half a year before the board, through a private company, on the model of Karachi, begins operation in Hyderabad.

The fate of two other talukas of Hyderabad, Qasimabad and Hyderabad Rural, is still undecided. Currently, the HMC and Qasimabad Municipal Committee are dumping and burning the municipal waste mostly in the open grounds in close proximity of the residential areas. Qasimabad Sports Complex, GCT Ground and Comprehensive College Latifabad are among the biggest dumping sites in Hyderabad.

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At a meeting, chaired by Hyderabad Commissioner Muhammad Abbass Baloch in Hyderabad on Wednesday, the board and HMC tentatively agreed to initiate a 10-day exercise to prepare an assessment report prior to making the feasibility. The assessment would figure out the maps of all the 96 Union Committees (UC) of HMC, population per UC, roads, transit dumping points, human resources and machinery, among other things.

"Following the assessment, we will prepare the feasibility and subsequently float a tender for international bidding for the waste collection and disposal service," the board's Managing Director Saeed Ahmed Mangnejo told The Express Tribune over phone.

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According to him, the board is considering to hire the private companies initially for two separate services including the daily waste collection and disposal and collection of solid waste piling up for years in several areas of Hyderabad. After around two years, the SSWMB will hire a company to develop the landfill site and a power generation plant, he said. He added that the board and the private contractor will utilise the existing manpower, machinery and vehicles of the HMC.

The Sindh government has approved 200 acres of land in Jamshoro district for the landfill site. Mangnejo said that they had demanded 400 acres for the twin cities, Hyderabad and Jamshoro, but the government approved only 200 acres. "We are also considering using this site for the waste of Matiari district."

During the meeting, Mangnejo asked HMC Mayor Syed Tayyab Hussain to pass a resolution in the corporation's council for handover of the waste disposal and collection services to the board. The mayor sought details of the terms and conditions under which SSWMB will function in Hyderabad.

"We [HMC] want to understand continuity of the board's operation and that whether it will continue working in the aftermath of a political change," Hussain said while talking to The Express Tribune. He expected that the contract with the board will likely be for a span of five to 10 years. "We hope that the Sindh government will share the financial burden for instituting this effective waste collection and disposal system with the HMC," the mayor expressed the hope.

The commissioner, Baloch, lamented that the garbage heaps have piled up for years in many localities in Hyderabad, creating a health hazard for the local residents. "If only we can improve the system of solid waste collection and disposal many health and other problems can be addressed," he believed.

The Additional Commissioner Syed Sajjad Haider Shah, Additional Commissioner II Tahir Memon, Jamshoro Deputy Commissioner Capt (r) Fariduddin Musfata, HMC Municipal Commissioner Nasrullah Abbassi and other officials attended the meeting. 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29th, 2018.

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