KARACHI: A cleanliness drive is being carried out in Karachi from June 16 to 30 with the view to eliminate environmental pollution, improve sanitation condition and to formulate a comprehensive policy for future in this regard.Sindh Environment Minister Sheikh Muhammad Afzal stated this while addressing a joint press briefing with Administrator Karachi Muhammad Hussain Syed in District Coordinator Officer camp office here on Wednesday.
The campaign which will be jointly conducted by the city government, town and union administrations, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and other civic agencies would also have full coordination from the provincial environment ministry.The minister said city had been divided into eight zones for this purpose. These include zone1: North Nazimabad, New Karachi Town; zone 2: Shah Faisal, Korangi, Malir and Landhi Town; zone 3: Liaquatabad, Gulburg and Gulshan Iqbal Town; zone 4: SITE and Orangi Town; zone 5: Keamari and Baldia Town; zone 6: Saddar, Lyari and Jamshed Town; zone 7: Bin Qasim Town and Gadap Town as zone 8.
The minister said cleanliness in Karachi was not the responsibility of only one organisation as many agencies besides city government and towns were also performing those services but they lacked any coordination among them.The minister said according to an estimate, the city presently produced nine to ten tonnes of garbage daily. Despite every effort and utilisation of available resources, a good portion of this solid waste could not be dispatched to land fill sites, he added.Afzal said civic organisations had only 28 to 30 percent capacity to carry out this work, while the rest of garbage found stayed on streets, dumping yards, empty plots or in sewerage and storm water drains and the situation became worse during rainy season.The minister said although these organisations were trying to solve this problem but they could only afford to spend nearly Rs 2 billion per annum on the lifting and disposal of solid waste, while an amount of Rs 20 billion annually would be required to dispose off all the garbage.
Afzal said the present campaign would help in formulating a future policy in the light of the experiences gained and then it would be decided as to how the resources should be provided to these organisations to ensure full disposal of garbage to land fill site.The minister said that the town administrators were also directed to ensure maximum disposal of garbage to land fill sites. “We are also considering strict action against the concerned town administrator if they failed to dispose off garbage properly,” he added.The minster said during the campaign all the garbage will be dispatched to land fill site and a receipt will be received for this, adding a town administrator or his representative would be at land fill site on daily basis and monitor the whole work.Afzal said the municipal services group would provide all facilities at land fill site and the Executive District Officer Municipal Services Masood Alam would work as the focal person. – Dailytimes
