Committee to review LWMC’s role

Minister hints at partial privatisation of cleanliness work

LAHORE:

The Punjab government is once again considering privatisation of the Lahore Waste Management Company’s (LWMC) operations despite spending more than Rs90 billion on strengthening it. A committee comprising officers from several departments has been formed and told to submit a report in two weeks about the future role of the company.

Provincial Local Government Minister Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed told The Express Tribune that the purpose of creating the waste management company was to run the operations in a better way so that citizens’ complaints regarding cleanliness could be addressed and the beauty of the city could be ensured. He said in reply to a question that if the committee recommended privatisation, the operations in some of the nine zones in Lahore would be privatised on an experimental basis. However, the control will be in the hands of the company.

The city cleanliness responsibility was taken away from the metropolitan corporation during the previous government and the LWMC was formed. The corporation had more than 500 vehicles, but they were reportedly sold at low prices and some were gifted to local bodies in other districts. Two foreign companies were given contracts to collect garbage for $19 per tonne, while there were separate charges for cleaning and washing the roads. For almost nine years, the companies cleaned and removing garbage from the city and over Rs75 billion was paid to them during the period. The management of the LWMC then decided to put it on its feet instead of paying in dollars to foreign companies and took over the task of cleaning and collecting garbage from the city after terminating the agreements with the foreign companies.

The waste management company initially faced many problems and piles of garbage accumulated in the city. Complaints were also received from citizens but the company is slowly improving the situation. The city needed 10,000 garbage containers, of which about 7,000 have been prepared and placed in the streets of the city. Out of 671 vehicles required, 250 have been purchased, constituting an asset of the company. More vehicles, including compactors, mechanical sweepers and dumpers, will arrive during the current month. Sanitary workers, drivers and other staff members have also been recruited.

The LWMC management says the shortage of employees and machinery will be overcome by November this year, after which the sanitation system in the city will gradually improve. The company is currently collecting garbage in the city at the primary level. The garbage collection and disposal work at the secondary level has been contracted out. Work is being done in six workshops for maintenance and repair of old vehicles. However, more than 600 vehicles are still at the workshops. Sources in the company alleged that vehicles having completed their period of viability were also being repaired in the traditional manner instead of disposing of them as per modern requirements.

An official said around Rs11 billion was now being spent annually by the company instead of Rs14 billion by doing the primary sanitation work itself and giving the secondary tasks on contract in rupees. Thus more than Rs3 billion is being saved annually. However, now the authorities have apparently stopped efforts to make the waste management company an authority and formed an eight-member committee, which will present a report to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on its current and future situation, expenses, and the pros and cons of running the entire system itself or privatising the entire system.

Provincial Local Governments Secretary Dr Naeem Rauf said the members of the committee will look into the current situation of the company, including the cost of garbage collection and disposal and the future strategy. He said that if the committee thought that the company should be privatised then the step was possible.