Unattended waste a bane for Pindi
Heaps of garbage, foul smell and unmanaged solid waste in garrison city are not only destroying the beauty of the city but are also increasing pollution and posing a serious threat to the health of the residents.
Rawalpindi, once known as one of the cleanliest cities in the country, is struggling to manage its solid waste as half of its daily generated waste remains uncollected. Moreover, the waste chunk lifted by the city managers is also dumped openly within the city’s vicinity due to lack of proper waste segregation or treatment mechanism.
Approximately 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes of waste is generated daily in the garrison city however the concerned departments lift only 1,000 tonnes. The remaining waste is either moved to the sewage or lies on streets in small heaps.
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Lack of workforce, machinery, vehicles and the non-availability of modern dumping sites are the main reasons behind the city managers’ inability to keep roads and residential areas clean. Rapid urbanisation due to massive population influx from other cities and adjoining rural areas resulting in mushroom growth of new housing societies in the outskirts of Rawalpindi is considered another challenge by the authorities.
Although the officials of Rawalpindi Waste Management Corporation (RWMC) claim to collect and properly dispose of solid waste, the situation on the ground is opposite. “We are efficiently and effectively providing solid waste management services across the city,” claimed RWMC’s Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Nawaz Gondal. “Daily we collect around 1,000 tonnes of solid waste by deploying 3,800 sanitary workers and 243 different types of vehicles,” he added. Moreover, he said that presently the corporation was dispensing duties at five cities of Rawalpindi District.
He further said that “The waste collected from different areas is gathered at Liaqat Bagh and then transported to a dumping site located at Losar, Chak Beli road some 30 kilometres from Rawalpindi city”. He said that RWMC provides services like the placement of waste containers, manual mechanical sweeping, mechanical washing, waste collection, waste transportation, disposal, de-silting of tertiary drains, plot clearance, and resolution of complaints received through helpline 1139.
“RWMC has a Vehicle Trip Counting System (VTCS) operated automatically without human involvement,” he added. The CEO said that RWMC carries out solid waste management services at 24 metro bus stations including mechanical washing of metro bus tracks, stairs and escalators, platforms, pedestrian bridges, auxiliary areas, and washrooms.
He said that improper dumping of waste by citizens is the biggest problem for RWMC and he appealed to the residents to throw garbage in waste containers instead of drains, open plots, and on roads.
A recent study conducted by the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) revealed that waste collected across Rawalpindi was dumped in the open without any gas collection or leachate management system for the safety of ground and surface water resources.
Environmentalists and health experts have described burning or dumping solid waste in open as hazardous for human health and the environment calling upon authorities to put in place a proper mechanism of disposal.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 23rd, 2023.