MULTAN, Sept 6: The Asian Development Bank, Punjab government and city district government are collaborating to establish an effective solid waste management system to make the city pollution-free, says an official press release.

DCO Iftikhar Babar said at a meeting with the ADB representatives and SWM officials here on Wednesday: “We hope to enhance our capacity to dispose of 761 tons of solid waste per day, and to ensure recycling through modern technology in the next five years.”

ADB mechanical engineer Markus Sommer Haldr, Project Manager Roger Pfammater, Asif Bashir Farooqi, Wajid Usmani, Jamil Asghar Bhatti and other officials concerned were present at the meeting.

The DCO briefed the ADB representatives on the cultural heritage and historical importance of the city, and informed them that Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi had introduced the Southern Punjab Basic Urban Services Project (SPBUSP) under which billions of rupees uplift schemes were being executed in south Punjab.

The Punjab and the city district governments were working on improving SWM capacity on priority basis, the DCO said and added: “But still we are short of target. We have enhanced our capacity to dispose of 60 per cent of the solid waste per day and are adopting measures involving mechanized system to elevate it up to 100 per cent.”

He said old machinery was being replaced with the new equipment, manpower was being increased, private land was being acquired for solid waste storage and new systems were being introduced for its recycling.

He said some 1,660 people were presently performing sanitation jobs, while 216 more would be recruited soon for the purpose. He added that a sum of Rs232 million per month would be spent on the modern SWM system.

The ADB officials proposed some 200-acre site for solid waste disposal, to which the DCO directed the town nazims to locate suitable piece of land for the purpose, and added that private land would be acquired in case of non-availability of state land.

The ADB officials pledged all possible assistance to the federal, provincial and city district governments to check pollution in the city.—APP