LAHORE, April 7: The solid waste management of the city government does not have even one sanitary worker for a population of 1,000 and 110 of its 300 garbage disposal vehicles need maintenance.

The sanctioned strength of the workers has not been raised for the past 15 years. The salary budget for SWM employees is around Rs530 million per annum. An additional Rs70 million is allocated for machinery.

The SWM has a sanctioned strength of around 6,500 sanitary workers for a population of around 7 million. Besides, there are more than 1,400 vacancies.

To deal with the shortage of sanitary workers, sanitation services in the newly developed localities have been entrusted to private contractors who have been authorized to recover sanitation fee from the residents. The SWM has also decided to recover Rs300 million sanitation fee from the areas served by its own staff.

The growing number of faulty vehicles and the shortage of workers are a permanent strain on the SWM which must move 4,000 tonnes of garbage generated daily in the city. About 110 of its fleet of 300 trucks, tractors, loaders and bulldozers, most of which are more than 15 years old, are now in the workshops. As a result garbage from some collection points cannot be lifted daily.

The SWM has been disposing of the garbage at its dumping grounds at Mahmood Booti, Saggian and Babu Sabu. A new dumping site has recently been acquired at Shahpur Kanjra.

A plan to recycle the solid waste generated by the city by setting up composting plants has been revived recently. The city government has earmarked Rs5 million for the project. A private sector organization will be allotted 200 kanals of land each at Mahmood Booti and Shahpur Kanjra for the purpose. The fertilizer thus produced would be sold for Rs100 to Rs150 per 50 kg.