Piles of garbage go higher as sanitation workers’ strike enters day-three

Piles of garbage, a significant landmark of the city, grew even higher as the strike of sanitary workers entered day-three on Wednesday.

The sanitary workers are demanding payment of salaries in their accounts, rather than through their immediate bosses who keep a cut in the cash to be disbursed among the sweepers.

Besides the sanitation staff, the other low grade employees of local government department suffer the same highhandedness of the officers.

"Our only demand is that our salaries should be paid online through treasury. If the salaries go online, our strike will end," labour leader Zulfiqar Shah said talking to The Express Tribune.

Due to the ongoing strike by local government employees across Sindh since Monday, the condition of the city has drastically deteriorated and huge piles of rubbish and garbage are seen everywhere on the streets.

The Sindh government instead of accepting the simple demand of the sweepers, has acquired services of a Chinese company to do th clean up job. The outsourced firm however does not have the machinery for hauling garbage due to workers' strike.

Read More: WSSP launches 14-day sanitation campaign

The local government workers under the All Pakistan Local Government Workers Federation (ALGWF) across Sindh, are protesting for online payment of their salaries through treasury and are not ready to accept any other option. The employees' delegation also held talks with Local Government Secretary Najam Shah which remained unsuccessful.

The local government workers, especially those in charge of sanitation, have gone on a full-scale strike, which has led to a halt in garbage collection in Sindh, including Karachi.

The strike has been going on in Karachi for the last four days due to which heaps of garbage were piled up in various places in the city, causing stench of filth and filthiness everywhere.

In Karachi, more than 9,000 sanitary workers are on strike and they have locked up 1,300 garbage collection vehicles too.

Karachi generates 14,000 tons of garbage daily but the garbage has not been picked up for four days due to which heaps of garbage have started to form. The Chinese company had started garbage collection work from yesterday, which according to sources could only pick up 4,000 tons of garbage in a day.

Sources said that the Chinese company has 300 garbage collection vehicles, while a massive operation is needed to clean up Karachi. If the strike continues like this, there is a danger of an epidemic in the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2021.