KARACHI: Some major problems with the proposed new garbage collection system came to light when details of the project were shared with stakeholders during a public hearing of its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report organised on Wednesday at a local hotel by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa).

While concerns over the government’s “absolute failure so far” to ensure proper disposal of garbage in the city, particularly hazardous medical waste, dominated the event’s proceedings, one of the major concerns raised pertained to the fact that the project, which claimed to be based on modern waste disposal methods, did not have a system to segregate waste at source.

The EIA report also overlooked the issue.

Segregation of waste at source stressed in Sepa public hearing

The public hearing was called to discuss the EIA report of the project titled Establishment of six garbage transfer stations with material recovery and refuse derived fuel facilities in Karachi.

The garbage stations, according to the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB), the project proponent, would be developed at the old Irani Asphalt Plant, Mewashah graveyard, District West (eight acres), Deh Ganjiaro in District Malir (40 acres), Sharafi Goth in the Korangi Industrial Area (10.14 acres), old asphalt plant in Korangi township (4.13 acres), Deh Okewari in Gulshan-i-Iqbal (3.5 acres) and Korangi township near the naval/Coast Guard base (11.47 acres).

Highlighting their concerns, stakeholders said that mixing non-infectious municipal waste with highly infectious medical waste being dumped in every nook and corner of the city by clinics, maternity homes, laboratories, blood banks and hospitals, was a serious public health hazard, but the subject had been ignored in the project.

It was also questioned that how segregation of municipal waste from the highly harmful industrial waste would be ensured in the proposed system.

“Steps must be taken to ensure bio-safety of all workers who would be involved in the project,” said senior engineer A. A. Chandani.

It was also inquired why the government could not introduce a door-to-door garbage collection system in the present project to address the problem of infectious agents’ spread.

There were also queries over the presence of over 4,000 ‘kuchra kundis’ (garbage dumps) in the city and the fate of hundreds and thousands of poor people, a majority of them young boys dependent on garbage for survival, if the government planned to remove those dumps.

Some participants complained over the prolonged time taken by authorities to lift waste from garbage dumps and said overflowing dumps and dustbins, recently placed by the SSWMB in some areas of the city, were a common sight in the city.

On hazardous medical waste, officials representing the board, Sepa and the company, Environmental Management Consultants which has carried out the project EIA, argued that all healthcare facilities were bound under the Sindh Solid Waste Hospital Management Rules 2014 to properly dispose of their waste on their own and its violations could be taken up by Sepa.

Director of the board Dr Abdul Karim Jamali explained that vehicles carrying waste to the garbage stations and then to the landfill site would be covered, garbage dumps would not be removed and the government’s ultimate goal was to move towards door-to-door garbage collection, which would take time to materialise.

“The project would be implemented in phases and it would take two to three years to complete. There is no shortage of funds,” he told the audience, admitting that at present landfill sites were actually garbage dumping sites and would be developed scientifically in the following phase.

Answering a question, he said the municipal staff of East and South districts now received salaries from the board and there was no conflict between the board or the district municipal corporations or the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.

A feasibility study on Karachi’s medical waste, he said, was being conducted and would be ready in a few months.

Some questions, including whether the dumping of garbage at six stations in the city would negatively impact the surrounding communities and how plastic waste would be handled, remained unanswered.

Earlier, a presentation highlighting the project’s need, its objectives and some main operational features was shared with the audience according to which solid waste, after its collection through vehicles at the six garbage stations in the city, would be sorted out mechanically and manually before its onward journey to the landfill sites.

Electricity generation from waste was also part of the project, which, according to the EMC, did not pose a significant threat to the environment if EIA conditions and recommendations were implemented.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2017