KARACHI, Oct 4: Speakers at a seminar on ‘Improvement of quality of life of inhabitants and scavengers through sustainable waste management’ here on Tuesday stressed measures to improve living conditions of scavengers.

The seminar was held under auspices of the DHA Waste Management Cell and the European Union Asia Urbs at the Defence Central Library.

The DHA Waste Management Project was launched in April with a grant of the European Union under the Asia Urbs Programme.

The DHA is in the process of establishing the first composting plant of its kind, which would serve as a model for the entire country. The social welfare programme for scavengers is an important component of the project.

DHA Administrator Brig Maqsood Hussain in his keynote address said that any initiative envisaging betterment of environment was very close to the DHA doctrinal policy of providing clean environment to its residents.

He said he hoped that the recommendations of the seminar would help enhance public awareness of environment protection and systematic waste management.

The administrator said the DHA had sound infrastructure in the fields of organization, resources and expertise, which could imaginatively be used to enhance waste management output through better management. He, however, emphasized that the role of residents and residents’ associations was pivotal for the success of any such programme.

He said that the scavengers and rag pickers were the backbone and most important component of the DHA Waste Management Project, and therefore efforts must be made to improve their living conditions.

He said the programme envisaged the provision of compulsory free education up to matric to scavengers in a DHA school.

Dr M. Chugtai, the project consultant, elaborated waste management practices in European countries. He said that polices should be formulated to achieve similar results through well-coordinated efforts in which residents should act as a vibrant agent to energize and supervise the entire process.

Zafar Iqbal, president of the Defence Residents Society, spoke on behavioural response of residents towards environmental issues and gave suggestions for invoking their interest in the process.

Ghazala Aftab, environmental engineer of the DHA, highlighted solid waste management as an environmental issue, and Aatif Butt enunciated the existing waste management practices in the DHA.

Farida Essa, an environmental consultant, highlighted the pitiable life conditions of scavengers and underlined the need to look after them.

The other speakers emphasized that effective and tangible measures be taken to attract the scavengers towards education and better life through a systematic lifestyle, as opposed to their existing haphazard and unhygienic way of living.

The project coordinator, Lt-Col (retd) Qayyum, at the end gave the recommendations of the seminar. — PPI