GUJRAT: The Gujrat Municipal Corporation is all set to outsource the solid waste collection in 12 urban union councils of the city from Jan 15 as prequalification of the companies interested in the bidding have already been completed and five companies, including two foreign firms, have been shortlisted for tendering process.

The corporation has been facing a serious kind of problem in collecting garbage from the streets as well as lifting the solid waste from the main dumping sites of the city since the local bodies representatives took charge almost a year back. The people are facing a great trouble due to the inefficiency and inability of the civic agency in performing one of its key duties.

The corporation has also sought help from the provincial government’s department of ‘Urban Unit’ to devise a plan on how to cope with this challenge. Two experts from this unit participated in a recent meeting at the Gujrat district administration complex which was also attended by Mayor Haji Nasir Mehmood and senior officials of the administration and municipal corporation.

A senior official, privy to the development, told Dawn that at a time when the chief minister’s project of ‘Saaf Dehaat’ (clean villages) has been underway across the province, there was a need to address this major problem of solid waste management of Gujrat city for which it had been decided to outsource the solid waste collection. He added that in the first phase, the contract would be awarded to a private firm that would lift the solid waste from at least 22 main garbage dumping points on the main arteries of the city where the sanitary workers of the corporation disposed of solid waste after house-to-house collection. However, he said, the house-to-house collection of the solid waste would also be outsourced in the second phase that too had not been properly done so far by the sanitary staff of corporation.

Gujrat Mayor Haji Nasir Mehmood said the corporation was facing a shortage of sanitary staff as well as of the latest machinery that was the major cause of trouble in lifting the solid waste whereas there a ban on new recruitments. According to him at least 15 more sanitary workers were required in each urban UC of the city in addition to the existing staff.

The municipal corporation had provided at least 72 motorcycle-rickshaws to 72 wards of 12 UCs to lift the garbage from the congested streets before dumping it at 22 main dumping sites from where the heavy machinery would lift the waste to carry it to the sites located on the outskirts of the city.

But the people of city have consistently been complaining of non-collection of the solid waste from their doorsteps as well as from the main dumping sites of the city which is the actual cause of concern for the authorities.

Muhammad Azhar of the Urban Unit said for the selection of the Gujrat solid Waste Management Company the previous experiences would be taken into account and it would be ensured that the people could take benefit from it.

Another official said closed-circuit TV cameras would be installed at the city’s 22 main dumping sites which would also be linked to an online system to consistently monitor the timely lifting of the solid waste.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2017