March 31, 2003	Monday	Muharram 27, 1424

KARACHI, March 30: The door-to-door garbage collection scheme, launched by the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) last year, is not producing desired results owing to lack of civic sense and cooperation by the residents.

Even today, there is hardly any by-lane or main road in DHA where rubbish is not littering around. Heaps of garbage, garden refuse and debris are common scenes witnessed in the open plots thus giving an ugly look and also polluting the environment in the area.

Despite the fact that it was a good attempt on the part of the DHA to introduce a garbage collection scheme which would not only have made the area look clean but also create a civic sense among the residents.

But, unfortunately, the result of the year-long campaign appeared dismal and while on a visit to the DHA area, one can see same old atmosphere that had prompted the Authority to launch the drive.

It is very difficult to come to a conclusion on the poor response from the DHA residents to the campaign despite an very active and prompt door-to-door service. One could only say that they are creatures of habit.

The DHA, in collaboration with the Clifton Cantonment Board (CCB), had requested the residents to place their garbage bags outside their bungalows. Even the garbage bags were made available at the complaint centre as well as the garbage collecting vehicles.

Since the CCB is a civic body and responsible for the maintenance of the DHA area, the task of implementing the scheme was assigned to the Board.

The CCB and a private company, which was given the contract of garbage collection, intimated the residents through handbills that the vehicles would blow hooter at the specified time of collection. Different time schedule for different localities was specified in the handbills distributed among the households.

Both the DHA and CCB soon realized that this system would not work as the residents were not following the time schedule and still preferred to throw garbage in open plots at a time of their own convenience.

In order to overcome this problem, the civic bodies came up with another idea of fixing garbage bins of steel mesh on the boundary wall of each bungalow. This idea also proved a futile exercise. It is a common sight in DHA that the bins are usually empty but open plots are full of garbage.

The residents are of the view that the garbage collection system is defective and has a lot of shortcomings. Mrs Naseem Ahmed Shamsi, a resident of Khayaban-i-Badar told Dawn that firstly, the bin was to small to stuff in it even one day’s garbage whereas the collection vehicle visited alternate days.

No doubt, she said, the civic body had asked the residents to call complaint centre for the removal of construction debris and garden refuse. However, still it is not possible to use this bin for the purpose.

Secondly, she said, rag pickers and scavengers used to tear off garbage bags in their search of the items of their need. Their practice, she added, scattered contents of the bag all around the bungalow gate which not only gave an ugly look but spread foul smell in the whole environment.

Another resident, Mrs Simaab Iqbal, said that the authorities had simply wasted huge funds on a scheme which did not fully cater to the needs of the residents. There seems a big gap between the actual requirement and available strength of vehicles and manpower.

The administrator of DHA, Brig Asif Ghazali, told Dawn that the question of the strength was valid. Still, he pointed out, a good attempt was made to provide better service to the residents.

He explained that only 14 garbage collection vehicles were operating in the DHA areas against the required strength of 28 owing to the paucity of funds. Mr Ghazali said each vehicle cost DHA millions of rupees whereas the Authority charged just Rs100 per household per month.

“We are fully aware of the fact that the scheme has some shortcomings and defects. However, this is the best we can do within the available resources. As per our own estimate, the actual cost of garbage collection comes to around Rs300 per household,” he said.

He remarked that the residents were not ready even to pay Rs100. He appealed to the DHA residents to extend their cooperation in order to get better and quality civic services.

Brig Ghazali revealed colour-coding of different categories of garbage was part of the original plan so that the process of separating specific items from the garbage for recycling purpose could continue simultaneously with the collection process.

Refusing to give up his struggle for developing sense of cleanliness in the residents of DHA, Brig Ghazali appeared confident that one day the people would come to realize that the scheme would succeed in serving the purpose for which it was introduced despite all the odds and shortcomings.

“They will have to kick their habit of throwing garbage in the streets, open plots or sewage drains,” he declared.

Ghazali welcomed the suggestion that there should be a regular and direct interaction between him and the DHA residents on the problems related to the scheme.