ISLAMABAD: Just like on the eve of 2014, the resolution of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for this New Year is “shifting Islamabad’s garbage dump site” some place far away to escape the stink.

In a meeting on Wednesday, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) decided that the city’s solid waste would no longer be dumped in Sector I-12, and a new site will be demarcated.

“At the new site, natural compost dumping would be carried out for proper disposal of garbage in line with modern scientific techniques,” said member administration Amer Ahmed Ali, while presiding over a meeting.

CDA started to dump around 700 metric tons of solid waste at the existing site in I-12 in 2011. Later a new site was selected in Sector D-12 near Margalla Hills.

However, after the Supreme Court took notice,the CDA announced in January 2013 that the dumping site would be shifted from Sector D-12 to another place. But it was shifted back to Sector I-12. One year later the civic body again decided to shift the garbage dumping site.

The meeting held on Wednesday noted that the dumping site had to be shifted from its existing site as development work in Sector I-12 would soon be initiated.

The establishment of a proper landfill site has been a lingering issue for the CDA.

In the late 1980s, the authority started dumping garbage in Sector H-12 and continued the practice till 2006, only to shift it to Sector H-11.

The CDA then began dumping garbage in Sector I-14 in 2010. In 2011, another site in Sector I-12 was chosen and then in 2013, a site in Sector D-12 was selected.

However, the CDA officials decided that the new dumping site would be established in a minimum space where garbage would be dumped to avoid pollution and other health-related issues.

“It would be a proper landfill site which would meet the requirements of the era,” an official of the environment wing said.

The CDA has also decided to upgrade the Sanitation Directorate. However, the officials observed that one issue that the Sanitation Directorate faced was lack of attendance by the sanitary workers.

It has been suggested that a biometric system be introduced in the CDA, and the attendance of supervisory staff and sanitary workers should be checked twice a day to tackle the issue.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2015