Garbage station poses health hazards

KMC official says trash piling up on site at Expressway due to urban flooding

KARACHI:

The garbage station on Malir River along the Shaheed-e-Millat Expressway poses serious health hazard to the thousands of people residing in the area because of ever rising mountains of trash piling up at the site.

Rainwater has accumulated at the garbage station due to which the process to haul almost 20,000 tonnes of trash daily has stopped, KMC Director Garbage Transfer Station, Syed Aftab Ali.

Hundreds of trucks haul tonnes of garbage to the landfill site in Jam Chakro, Surjani Town, but the process has stopped and the mounds of garbage are increasing by the day, Aftab Ali said while talking to The Express on Thursday.

He said, "As many as 500 vehicles are used to collect trash from the entire East district. Then the trash is transferred to the landfill site near Surjani Town through dumber trucks."

He further mentioned that a project to produce electricity from waste is under consideration for the future.

He said, "Because of the water, accumulated at the garbage station and the overflowing river after recent rains, the waste is dumped at a limited area making huge heaps of garbage which is producing nauseating stench on the Expressway.

He said, "We have informed the higher authorities about the situation and hopefully the problem will be solved soon after which the normal routine of transferring garbage to the landfill site near Surjani will begin."

The recent monsoon rains have destroyed the sewerage infrastructure of Karachi as it could not sustain the huge flow of rainwater and the stinking sewage and slush oozed out on the roads and streets, creating problems for citizens.

According to details, municipal bodies opened up manholes to drain out the rainwater in an attempt to hide their incompetence.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2022.