Netherlands offers waste to energy project

Ambassador Plomp, CM Murad discuss cleaning Manchar Lake

KARACHI:

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has invited Netherland's top companies to establish waste-to-energy projects in Karachi and use the latest technology to depollute Manchhar.

This emerged on Friday when the Netherlands Ambassador Willem Wouter Plomp along with his Trade Advisor Hammad Raza and Trade Counsellor Yasir Farooqui called on Murad at CM House on Friday.

The meeting was attended by CM Special Assistant on Investment Syed Qasim Naveed and Principal Secretary to CM Fayaz Jatoi.

The visiting ambassador told the chief minister that their companies were interested in investing and establish a `Waste-to-Energy' project in Karachi.

"We have one of the top companies in the world working in the waste to energy sector," he disclosed. At this, the chief minister said that over 11000 tons of waste was generated in the city and it could produce 200 MW of energy.

The chief minister directed Minister Energy Imtiaz Shaikh to meet with the team of Netherlands and finalize the modus operandi for the proposed project.

Meanwhile, he also directed Special Assistant on Investment Syed Qasim Naveed to hold a separate meeting with the investors of the Netherlands so such a project could be moved forward.

The Netherlands diplomat also offered investment and operation of a waste management project in the city. He said that the Netherlands companies have expertise in waste management and their expertise is known all over the world.

At this the chief minister said that his special assistant on Investment would also discuss waste management projects with their team.

The CM said that Manchhar Lake, located in his constituency, Sehwan, was one of the largest lakes of the world. He added that due to disposal of saline water and some other issues the entire lake has turned polluted.

Hundreds of fishermen used to fish in the lake have become jobless. "If the lake is depolluted hundreds of fishermen would return to their jobs and its water could be used for drinking and irrigation purposes," Mr Shah said.

The ambassador told the chief minister that he would send experts to visit the lake and would give technical advice so that a project could be made to clean it.

The meetings between the Netherlands investors and experts are being fixed with the concerned officers to finalise the project.