HYDERABAD: The commission formed by the Supreme Court ordered the Liaquat University hospitals in Hyderabad and Jam­shoro to adopt the hospital waste management standards recommended by the Sindh Environ­mental Protection Agency (Sepa) and complete the process for building incinerators.

During the hearing in a SHC Hyderabad circuit bench courtroom, the commission consisting of Sindh High Court Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro received complaints of rampant garbage dumping and burning in populated areas.

Officials informed the judge that the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board had selected two landfill sites and a summary had been sent to the chief minister for approval.

The Hyderabad commissioner informed the judge that the Qasimabad Municipal Committee (QMC) was overstaffed with around 300 unnecessary clerical and supervisory staff. It was also disclosed that 18 Muslims were appointed among 209 sanitary workers, but they performed the duty of computer operators and drivers.

Sindh Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro, whose younger brother Kashif Shoro is chairman of the QMC, was blamed for such appointments.

“This is a criminal drain of financial resources,” said the commissioner, who had fired hundreds of contractual staff of the Hyder­abad Development Autho­rity in June, 2016.

The Sepa DG appealed to the commission to ban construction of new apartment buildings on over three-kilometres stretch of Wadu Wah road’s either side in Qasimabad until Rs2 billion phase III of a mega drainage project was completed. He informed the court that builders threw waste water in Wadu Wah, which polluted the freshwater distributary.

Advocate Shahab Usto, on whose constitutional petition the Supreme Court formed the commission, said Qasimabad was a burgeoning town with a population of 400,000 to 500,000 people — with a majority of intra-provincial migrants from other districts of Sindh. “But it is being allowed to spread in a haphazard way without town planning.”

The justice also visited various sites of Wadhu Wah, Kotri combined effluent treatment plant, site of KB feeder canal and Kotri water filtration plant.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2017