WHILE the world is busy mastering its waste, we are letting it play havoc with our health and environment. Ineffective solid waste management is among the critical problems faced by Karachiites.

The absence of a proper waste collection and disposal mechanism has forced people to resort to measures that have detrimental impact. That is the collection and subsequent burning of garbage under flyovers and bridges. This practice has a bad effect on the surroundings and the civil structures’ lifespan.

The smoke has adverse effect on concrete. Moreover the water-waste quagmire has rendered the waste water streams of the Lyari river and Gujjar nullah ineffective during the rainy season. The condition of landfill sites is alarming as they are almost full to the brim.

Garbage, including hazardous medical waste is disposed without any sorting and segmentation, resulting in massive underground and atmospheric pollution.

A study, published in World Applied Sciences Journal in 2014, reported on the analytical results of tests conducted on underground water in the vicinity of Karachi’s landfill sites. The report’s findings showed that the content of metals such as cadmium, lead, nickel and chromium were beyond permissible limits for drinking water.

So what are the solutions?

Countries like Austria and Sweden have turned their trash into a treasure by converting it to energy to light up and heat homes. In Vienna, residual waste incineration contributes to half of the district heating energy of the city in summers and one third in winters. Even next door Dubai, has recently announced the launch of a waste to energy plant which will treat 5,000 tonnes of solid waste daily and generate 185MW electricity, powering 120,000 homes.

Karachi on the other hand, produces 16,000 tons of waste daily, 40 per cent of which remains uncollected. That makes it around 6400 tons of garbage accumulation on streets. Of the total waste produced in Karachi every day, 80 per cent is recyclable material, while the rest is organic waste.

It is time the federal and provincial governments, local government authorities and every individual played their role in making Pakistan a cleaner and safer place.

Mirza Ibrahim Baig

Dubai, UAE

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2018