MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 20: The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the Muzaffarabad Municipal Corporation (MMC) have singed a memorandum of understanding for launching an effective cleanliness drive in the state capital.

The corporation’s recently appointed administrator Zahid Amin told Dawn here on Sunday that the civic body would receive $470,000 to appoint 100 sweepers on contractual basis and hire 13 vehicles for six months for removal of garbage from the town.

Around 4000 dustbins would be purchased and placed in different localities in addition to some 40 filth dumps, he added.

Mr Amin said that the corporation’s sanitary staff strength was 72, of whom two sweepers had died and ten were critically injured in the quake.

The remaining sanitary workers had rejoined duty immediately after the quake to clean the city, he said.

According to Unicef forty to fifty thousand people have descended from mountain villages in Muzaffarabad. Most of them are unaware of health and hygiene requirements due to which they have been exposed to different infectious diseases.

These people live in unorganised makeshift camps that have sprung up in the town with poor sanitation facilities.

“Cleaning of city is, in fact, a difficult task in the present circumstances mainly because most people don’t show regard to principles of hygiene,” Mr Amin said.

He said given enormity of the task, the AJK Chief Secretary Kashif Murtaza had also promised to provide funds for appointment of another 50 sanitary workers for six months.

He said he had also requested Lahore City District Nazim Mian Aamir Mehmood to provide technical support and sanitary staff and had received a very positive response from him.

Mr Amin warned that inattention to choked sewerage system could aggravate health risks.

“We have lost everything and now we are in dire need of equipment to maintain sewerage system,” he said, asking donor agencies to help the civic body in this regard.

He said he had involved residents of the town in cleanliness drive and in one day 12 truckload of garbage had been collected and dumped out.

“This drive will continue on permanent basis,” he added.

Meanwhile, the AJK Local Government and Rural Development Department has also signed an MoU with an international aid organisation for rehabilitation and reconstruction of water supply schemes and construction of 50 pit-latrines in rural areas.

The department would also focus on awareness building regarding water quality, sanitation and hygiene practices, an official said.