The Sindh government and a Chinese firm have inked an agreement for garbage collection in Karachi, where the solid waste problem has assumed crisis proportions.

The agreement in this respect was signed between the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board and Chinese company Wuzung, Radio Pakistan reported.

Under the first phase of the agreement, Wuzung will collect waste in South and East districts of the metropolis. In both districts, the Chinese company will lift garbage from house to house free of cost.

Garbage containers and trash cans will also be installed at various spots in the districts.

See: These Karachiites have a message for Sindh chief minister

The waste management board plans to sign an agreement with the Chinese firm for garbage disposal in other districts of Karachi as well.

The Sindh government has been struggling to contain Karachi's garbage emergency for years. In neighbourhoods across the city mounds of garbage can be observed piling up everywhere.

There is no reliable data about the amount of solid waste the metropolis generates on a daily basis, though estimates suggest it runs into thousands of tonnes.

Much of the waste ends up in dumps, alleyways and open spaces where it remains for weeks if not longer, while some of it is burnt in bonfires that unleash a vile miasma that chokes the entire locality.

In an interview on Geo News show Capital Talk (to be aired on Monday), ex-president Asif Ali Zardari had said that a Chinese company will start operations in Karachi soon to clear the city of garbage.

While responding to a question regarding Karachi’s garbage problem, Zardari, whose party rules Sindh, said residents of the Karachi would hear "good news soon".

Former Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah had in July asked the local government ministry to outsource the job of garbage lifting to some international firm in at least three district municipal corporations.

The waste management board then issued a Letter of Intent (LoI) for two DMCs, South and East, to a Chinese firm for the purpose of garbage collection.