PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday directed the provincial government to acquire land in Shamshato area of the capital city for the proposed dumping site before April 25 to resolve the solid waste management issue.

Justice Qaisar Rashid and Justice Syed Arshad Ali observed that the garbage dumping site was a longstanding issue and therefore, the government should address it on a priority basis.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by advocate Malik Masraf, who challenged the dumping of solid waste, including hospital waste, near a residential area in Hazarkhwani.

Sanitation agency says 600 kanals of land to be obtained in Shamshato area

He said due to the government’s failure to acquire land, the solid waste of the entire city had been dumped in Hazarkhwani.

Chief executive of the Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar Khan Zaib and additional advocate general Syed Sikandar Shah informed the bench that the government had decided to acquire 600 kanals of land in Shamshato area on the outskirts of the provincial capital to set up a garbage dumping site.

They said in near future, Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act would be invoked to purchase the said land and that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had been taking keen interest in the matter and had constituted a special committee headed by minister Shah Farman to oversee it.

They said that previously, dumping sites were identified in Urmer and Maryamzai areas but protests by the local people forced the authorities to abandon the plans to use them for the purpose.

The bench fixed Apr 25 for the next hearing into the petition with the directions that before that date, the government should complete the process of acquiring the said land.

The petitioner said the continuous dumping of solid waste in the area and putting fire on it had been spreading different diseases in the localities situated nearby the dumping site.

He said earlier last year, some sites were identified for setting up dumping site in the capital but a provincial minister and some local MPAs opposed it and pressured the chief minister to reject the sites.

The petitioner also gave the court photographs of piles of solid wastes dumped in Afridi Garhi area near Ring Road and said different entities including hospitals, Town-I Administration, WSSP, etc. were dumping waste there and thus, endangering the life of hundreds of thousands of people, including his and his family’s.

The petitioner said, “The act of the respondents while dumping different surgical materials within the limits of Town-1, a thickly populated area, is against the law, Constitution, public health policies and universally recognized fundamental rights of the citizens.”

Recently, a controversy had emerged over the issue as the local residents stopped the WSSP from dumping solid waste at the said site in Afridi Garhi area. The WSSP had identified another site in Urmer area but few days later, the residents of that area too took to the streets to protest the dumping of solid waste.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2018