As trash piles up, so do claims that Clifton’s contractor is shirking from duties

Residents of some areas claim that the garbage has not been picked up for over two weeks.

KARACHI: As mounds of trash begin to grow larger in parts of Clifton and Defence Housing Authority (DHA), allegations have begun to fly that a solid waste management contractor hired to keep the area clean is skipping his duties.

Residents have complained that filth has been accumulating outside their homes and on the corner of streets for over two weeks now.

Hanif Memon, a resident of Block 9, said, “I have registered a complaint with the Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) but no one has bothered to take action. The situation outside our home has become unbearable.”

CBC has hired two private contractors who are supposed to ensure that filth is removed from collection points every day.

A CBC sanitation officer said that contractors cheat the organisation regularly. “They must run their trucks at least three times a day, but they do it just once each morning. They save a lot of money by cutting fuel costs.”

CBC has made dedicated garbage collection points in DHA and Clifton from where the contractors are required to shift the trash to landfill sites.



All the garbage is disposed off at the landfill site in Surjani Town that is maintained by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). The CBC contractors were earlier using open pits in DHA’s phase VIII to dispose of the garbage.

CBC’s vigilance staff complained that it was too stretched to keep track of everything. “We can’t possibly keep an eye on every truck,” said one official. “If the contractor is dishonest, he just goes on cheating everyone- from residents to the CBC.”

The contractor Saleem Butt is responsible for Clifton and a large part of DHA. “We couldn’t lift the garbage because of the recent strikes. Everything will be cleared by Wednesday,” he said, denying that work has been cut to save fuel cost.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2013.