December 08, 2006	Friday	Ziqa'ad 16, 1427

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LAHORE, Dec 7: Some 14 structures will be raised in various city areas under a pilot project to hide solid waste skips or containers. The General Bus Stand or the Lorry Adda and the Al-Kareem Chowk in Green Town each would have two such structures, which have been named solid waste enclosures by the City District Government of Lahore.

In addition to the stated two, Ayesha Siddiqa Road near Akram Medical Complex, Link Shadman Road, Bahawalpur House, adjacent to LCCA ground near Qadhafi Stadium, Makkah Colony in Cantonment area, at the Old Chungi near the Hide Market on GT Road, at G and J blocks of Gulberg would each have one such structure.

Measuring 50X25 feet with nine-foot high walls, each enclosure will have two skips or containers besides having enough space for scavengers to sort out solid waste and find suitable things for themselves while the leftover will be auctioned to private contractors.

“Once the enclosures are built and the people start throwing solid waste in them, there will be no stinking heaps of garbage anywhere in the city,” CDGL officials said and added the pilot project would cost Rs8 million.

“The enclosures near the Akram Medical Complex, Bahawalpur House and the Lorry Adda are nearing completion while work on the one on Link Shadman Road will start shortly,” they said.

Further sites for the purpose were also being identified, they continued.

“We have plans to build such enclosures at Kharak on Multan Road, at Wassanpura or Kachupura in Misri Shah, at the Moon Market in Allama Iqbal Town, besides at least seven other places in the Gulberg area.”

More than 100,000 people directly or indirectly benefit from the recycling industry in the city. “Solid waste in the skips and containers has around 60 per cent of the raw material used in the industry that generates a revenue of Rs100 million annually,” they said.

Officials of the CDGL Solid Waste Management wing said they had been extending regular waste removal services to 33 per cent of the city’s population, 33 per cent was being served partly while the remaining 34 per cent was not being served at all.

“Will the resources allocated for the city would be enough for the entire district?” they asked, maintaining that Lahore city covered an area of 440 square kilometres while the area under the CDGL was now 1,770 square kilometres.

“The city produces 4,000 tons to 5,200 tons of solid waste daily - 4,800 tons on an average. The figures are based on the World Bank formula according to which every person generates 0.65 kilograms of solid waste daily. Furthermore, the city has some five million people in transit daily - they come to Lahore for some time and leave - but they do produce solid waste.

“Lahore needs at least 100 such enclosures or garbage transfer stations that can serve as places to collect waste in various localities for its further transportation to a dumping site,” they said.

At present, solid waste is being dumped at three sites. The 600-kanal patch along Mahmood Booti on Bund Road consumes around 1,100 tons, the 350-kanal space near Saggian Bridge 2,000 tons while the 200-kanal plot near Bagrian in Green Town gets 500 to 600 tons daily on an average.

“Most of the 7,500 or so workers serving an estimated population of 8 million are in the 40-plus age group. They work round-the-clock to lift half or around 3,000 tons of the waste generated daily. We have to work extra hours, even at night in view of the shortage of our lifting capacity. Of the total 374 vehicles, around 300 work daily which are much short of the requirement to meet the workload,” the SWM officials said, and added that Karachi by comparison had some 18,000 workers to lift solid waste produced by some 10 million-plus people.

Encroachments, the SWM officials said, were the biggest hurdle in the removal of solid waste.

“Traders give us a tough time. They neither end encroachment nor remove the garbage. They even do not pay the sanitation fee. Non-cooperation on the part of the general public by not allowing placement of skips or containers near their homes and businesses is another major problem we face every now and then,” they said.

“Around 700 tons of solid waste is daily produced at Shahalam Market alone which we lift from 3am to 8pm in the first shift and from after sunset to late night in the second shift,” they explained.

“Under Section 155 of the Punjab local government laws, enacted in 2001, throwing garbage other than at the specified places is an offence. Initially, we caught people, submitted their cases in courts but some 7,263 cases are still lying pending,” the SWM officials said.

Residents of the walled city continued keeping garbage in bags of five-kilo capacity, which were supplied to them free of cost for three months in 2002. “But the day we told them to buy their own, they resumed the practice of throw away solid waste where they liked,” the officials recalled.

Mughal emperors built filth depots inside the walled city from where solid waste was transported in bullock carts to far-off places. “But we closed down those filth depots and in most cases allotted the space for building plazas and houses,” the officials said.