ISLAMABAD: Owing to the negligence of Capital Development Authority (CDA), Islamabad is still without a landfill site and after several makeshift arrangements the civic agency has been temporarily disposing of waste in Losar area of Rawalpindi for around two years and the contract has been extended for six more months.

After every six months, the CDA extends its contract with Rawalpindi Waste Management Company (RWMC). A couple of days ago, the civic agency extended the contract from April 4 to October 3, 2024. Under this agreement, CDA pays to the company Rs1,350 per tonne as the tipping fee.

The CDA collects garbage and trash from the city and before transporting to Losar dumps it at I-11. However, the civic agency is now in the process of setting up a proper transfer station at I-9 inside the compound of the sewage treatment plant. Once started, the work will be completed in six months.

Meanwhile, almost every year the CDA floated the idea of setting up a proper “scientific landfill” site only to change the stance later. At present, the civic agency is planning to set up a site in Losar after acquiring land through the Rawalpindi administration.

Unable to set up landfill site in Islamabad, civic agency has been relying on temporary arrangements

“We are going to procure land in Losar to have a proper landfill site. Our talks are underway with Rawalpindi authorities,” said director sanitation Mashooq Ali Shaikh. He said the CDA board had approved six-month extension in the agreement with RWMC.

Earlier last year, the CDA had proposed two sites at Kuri and Dhoke Jando near Nicholson’s Monument. In 2018, it had also proposed a landfill site in ditches created in hills by stone crushers at Sangjani, but the environment body rejected the site.

The unavailability of a landfill site in capital was also petitioned in Islamabad High Court (IHC) and last year the court had directed the CDA to resolve the issue.

Senior lawyer Raja Inam Ameen Minhas, who filed the case in the IHC, told Dawn on Thursday that it was unfortunate that the capital city had no scientific landfill site. “Unavailability of a landfill site in city of around three million people is great injustice.” He said the handling of garbage and trash by the CDA was highly questionable.

“We pleaded this case in court where not only CDA but representative of the federal government also assured the court that a proper landfill site will be developed, but nothing happened,” he said, adding garbage was destroying city’s environment while it is also hazardous for health of citizens.

“In this city, five-star hotels and high-rises buildings can be built but I don’t know why CDA is not paying heed to this issue of public importance,” he said. Moreover, in rural areas of Islamabad, people were throwing garbage at vacant places and nullahs.

“This was not a big issue when the population of Islamabad was small, but it has become a serious issue with urbanisation and growth of the capital city. Poor handling of waste is a source of contamination of water, soil and environment and spread of various diseases,” he said.

“The CDA was established in 1960, but still today it has failed to have a scientific landfill site like other cities,” the lawyer said.

An official of CDA said every year the civic agency spent over two billion rupees on waste issue and if a proper landfill site is developed, it could earn by using the waste for an energy project. He said that before disposing of solid waste at Losar, the civic agency used to dump garbage in the residential sector of I-12. However, the court in 2022 directed the civic agency to shift it outside the residential area. The court had also directed the CDA to ensure that “no waste is dumped in temporary sites in residential areas with effect from 04-10-2022.” Then the CDA moved towards Losar on a temporary basis.

In the past, on the recommendations of an international consultant, the CDA had selected a site at Kuri. An access road was also constructed to the site but all of a sudden, in 2011, the CDA and the environment body decided to shelve the project. Some officials at that time had alleged that the CDA dropped the idea of setting up a landfill site in Kuri to appease owners of housing schemes. Since then, the civic agency has been shifting the temporary landfill site from one place to another.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2024