From I-12: Garbage dumping site to be relocated again

CDA fails to identify new location despite assuring the apex court of finding a suitable place

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Wednesday again announced to relocate the city’s ‘temporary’ garbage dumping site from Sector I-12 to an unspecified location.

Though the authority did not announce the new location, a senior official said that “a summary seeking identification of the new dumping site is pending with the CDA’s planning wing”.

The decision to relocate the dumping site has been taken in the wake of the CDA’s recent announcement to develop the stalled Sector I-12 – where the site is currently located.

On January 2, 2014, while shifting the dumping site from Sector D-12 to Sector I-12 along IJP Road, the CDA had also informed the Supreme Court in writing that it has in consultation with the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency started selecting a ‘suitable landfill site’ for disposing of the trash permanently but since then it has failed to identify the location.

From late 80s till 2006, the CDA dumped the trash in Sector H-12 before it was shifted to Sector H-11. After the Islamabad High Court took notice of the site, it was moved to Sector I-14 in 2010. Later, the site was shifted to Sector I-12 in 2011 and to Sector D-12 in 2013. After the apex court’s intervention in January, it was again shifted back to Sector I-12.

Since its establishment in 1960, the civic agency has failed to find a permanent solution to dump the city’s garbage — approximately 600 tons or 1.2 kilogram per person on a daily basis.

CDA Spokesperson Asim Khichi said that “the new dumping site will be identified in Zone-II or Zone-V areas, where natural compost dumping site will be established for proper disposal of garbage in line with latest and modern techniques.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2014.