Solid waste disposal useless without resources and manpower

KARACHI: While a number of methods have been employed to manage the city’s solid waste, the problem has yet to be resolved, said All Pakistan Trade Union Federation (APTUF) Karachi chapter general secretary Farid Awan at a seminar on Wednesday at the Urban Resource Centre (URC).

Residents of Karachi have no way of calculating how much waste is generated across the city, Awan informed people at the seminar. Many reports have been published in the past, but there is no concrete data on how much garbage and waste is actually produced in Karachi, said Awan, who added that the city been through a number of ill-advised schemes for the disposal of solid waste, which cannot be managed without transparency, proper resources and man power.

There are two land-fills in Karachi - one near the Hub River and another in Surjani Town - which can cater to the entire city’s waste, provided that it is taken to the dumping sites, said Awan.

Out of the 560 dumpers bought by the CDGK two years ago, 460 are in working order. Similarly, from a total of 11,300 sanitary workers, who catered to a population of seven million people in 1996, the numbers have decreased to 8,000 workers who have been employed to dispose of the waste of almost 17 million people, said Awan.

He dissected the history of the city’s solid waste management, starting from Baldia Karachi - the city’s first central body - which used to dispose of the solid waste outside the city’s parameters.

“The city was no so densely populated at the time, which is why there was no need to develop any special technology. Sanitary workers did almost everything, from cleaning to loading and dumping the waste at the site,” he said.

Awan criticised the current system, calling the administration corrupt and careless. “When the sanitation department comes under counsellors, ghost workers and bribery is bound to be rampant.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2010.