ISLAMABAD: While a local government setup for the capital is just around the corner, residents doubt that it would bring any real improvement to the civic services in the city.

“Sanitary workers can be seen cleaning the streets occasionally, but no one comes to pick up garbage. Every morning we burn garbage after opening the shop,” said Mustafa Haider, a workshop owner in G-7.

A shop owner in the same market dismissed any chances of local government system bringing improvement in the city. “There would be no change as the same sanitary workers would be responsible for cleaning the streets and I am sure they would be unionised under the local government, as well,” he said.

Residents living in government and private houses in the G-6 Sector also complained that garbage is not regularly collected.

“Left with no other option, I send my children to throw plastic bags filled with garbage in the green belt at the corner of the street,” said Saira, resident of government quarters in G/6-2.

CDA cites lack of human resource as the reason

While piles of garbage are seen in almost all parts of the city, the civic agency appears to have given up on cleaning the city and has turned to residents, asking them to cooperate in keeping the city clean.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has put up banners at various places, asking people to properly dispose-off garbage. Meanwhile, the overall cleanliness of the capital continues to deteriorate.

Officials also seem skeptical about improvement in performance after the establishment of a local government in Islamabad.

“The main issue is the shortage of human resource in the CDA’s sanitation department. The CDA needs to recruit 1600 sanitary workers to meet the growing requirement of cleaning markets and residential areas,” a sanitation department official said.

“The limited number of workers would also affect the functioning of local government,” he added.

Currently, the CDA has 1300 sanitary workers and to make up for the shortage of labour, the CDA has outsourced garbage collection to private contractors.

“Private contractors are responsible for collecting garbage from G-6, G-7, G-8, G-9, G-10 and I-10,” the sanitation department official said.

The CDA pays an average of Rs2 million per sector to the contractors for garbage collection, each year.

“The ground reality shows that Islamabad will never be clean, no city can be clean as long as residents do not play their part,” the official of sanitation department said, The official said the CDA attempted to fine people for littering in 2011, starting from F-6 and F-7 but the plan failed miserably.

He said the elected local government would be even more reluctant to fine people hoping to gain their political support. “Not just residents of low income areas but people travelling in expensive cars also throw garbage everywhere,” he added.

“The main demand from the general public is cleanliness of the city and the approach towards acheivment of this goal is incorrect,” said CDA Member Environment Mustafain Kazmi.

He said Islamabad’s population is growing rapidly and currently there are 600 positions for sanitary workers which have remained vacant for a long time.

He said no survey has been conducted to know the population of the city and the amount of garbage being generated on a daily basis.

However, he said, the CDA has decided to invest more funds towards mechanised cleaning which would compensate for the lack of human resource. The civic body is planning to invest around Rs200 million in next two months, to purchase machinery required for lifting and disposal of garbage.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2015

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