KARACHI: Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday expressed displeasure over reports of encroachment of land reserved for landfill sites and directed the commissioner and the inspector general of police to start an operation against land grabbers and get the land cleared.

He was presiding over a meeting of Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) at the CM House here on Tuesday.

The meeting was attended by Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro, Information Minister Nasir Shah, Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Karachi commissioner, local government secretary, SSWMB managing director and other officials concerned.

‘The city produces 12,000 tonnes of garbage daily’

The chief minister asked the Karachi Development Authority’s director general to give him a detailed report about the plots he had vacated from land grabbers as he wanted to provide recreational facilities on them.

For this, Mr Shah constituted a committee under the local government minister with the local government secretary, KDA DG, land utilisation department member and others to recover the plots of land and suggest their use.

“If recovered land is not utilised, the land mafia will grab it again,” the chief minister said.

He added that all institutions had to extend support to the SSWMB so that it could perform its duty to the best of its capacity.

Giving presentation to the chief minister on the occasion, Mr Shoro and the SSWMB MD said the city produced 12,000 tonnes of garbage every day, of which 9,000 tonnes was generated in the municipal areas, including district municipal corporations and District Council of Karachi.

“The remaining 3,000 tonnes of waste is generated in areas of other civic bodies such as the six cantonment boards, SITE, KPT, Pakistan Railways, Civil Aviation Authority, etc,” they said.

“Currently, transportation cost of waste is high because the landfill sites are more than 35 kilometres away from the city centre. This distance is even more than 50km from some areas of Karachi.”

The meeting was told that two landfill sites — Jam Chakro and Gaond Pass — comprising 500 acres each, were available for disposal of waste.

“Unfortunately, both sites are simply dumping grounds far from international standards of sanitary landfill sites.

A piece of 10.14 acres of land at Sector 12- B, Korangi Industrial Area, Sharafi Goth, has been acquired and a boundary wall has been constructed around it. A computerised weighbridge is being installed and is expected to be working within the next 60 days.

“However, actual work of garbage transfer stations (GTS) couldn’t be undertaken due to heaps of more than 400,000 tonnes of garbage on the site accumulated during the last three decades,” the two said.

“This garbage is being lifted and transported for dumping at landfill sites. So far, over 200,000 tonnes of garbage has been transported to the landfill sites.”

The meeting was informed that garbage transfer stations in Deh Okiwari, Deh Gujro, Deh Gangiaro, Bin Qasim, Malir, Mewa Shah, Dhobi Ghat, Qasba Colony, Baldia Town and Hawkesbay could not be protected by the boundary wall due to encroachments.

Similarly, on learning that DMC West was using 12 acres as informal garbage transfer stations at K-28 Phase–II Trans-Lyari Quarters, the chief minister directed the Board of Revenue to allocate the land to SSWMB for GTS.

On an SSWMB request, he directed the chief secretary to provide land for establishment of GTS for Central and Korangi districts.

He was further informed that the revenue department had handed over 3000 acres for new landfill site near Dhabeji in 1996. A garbage train was started to transport garbage from Karachi for disposal at this site but later on the whole scheme was abandoned. The site was visited along with revenue officials of Malir district in 2015 and 2016 and it was found that most of the land had been encroached upon.

The chief minister directed the chief secretary to provide 3,000 acres from N.C.136 Deh Dhabeji, Chak No 1, Malir for the establishment of new landfill sites for Karachi.

Mr Shah was told that the SSWMB had reserved 200 acres for hospital waste and 300 acres for industrial waste.

“A consultant firm has already been hired which is carrying out ‘techno-economic feasibility study’ of the scheme.”

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2018