KARACHI, Dec 12: Top officials of the city government seem reluctant to hire a foreign operator for longstanding issue of solid waste disposal while citing that any such deal would be too expensive for the municipal managers, sources told Dawn.

The city government senior authorities have lately attended a presentation given by a Malaysian company Southern Waste Management-SDN while a Chinese company, Shanghai Shen Gong Environment Protection Company, has also submitted a detailed proposal to the city government in which they have mentioned their modus operandi threadbare with the promise that the city’s old problem would be solved skillfully.

A US-based company Globex had already submitted its proposal and organised a presentation for the city government officials earlier. Besides, a Kuwait-based company, whose name has not yet been publicized, has also shown its interest in the business and would formally submit its offer to the city government hierarchy.

While not disclosing as to how much the government would have to pay to the private operator for saving the city from becoming a large garbage dump, city government officials admitted that the proposals and presentations were promising and workable but the demand for payment for lifting of per kilogram garbage was ‘too high’.

“We think such demands are high, but we have not decided to give all this up as our negotiations are underway with the interested parties,” a senior official in the city government said.

Another official said the city government was exploring all options to resolve the solid waste issue.

Referring to an ADB-funded preliminary study, which had recently been concluded, he said the Asian Development Bank had agreed to issue soft loan for establishment of additional six garbage transfer stations and related infrastructure. Besides, in the ADB-funded scheme identification and evaluation of potential and preferred landfill sites would be included.

Sources said the ADB would carry out a detailed study soon in which ‘appropriate regulatory measures’ such as anti-dumping legislation and enforcement mechanisms would be included.

The detailed study would report on ‘collection system contracting improvements’, providing recommendations and documentation for improved operation and management of private sector waste collection operations. It would also report on integration of informal recycling industry into an improved solid waste management collection system.

Sources said the ADB’s study and assistance for establishment of more garbage stations would make it convenient for the city government to operate the system on its own or contracting out the system on the rates it could conveniently afford.

The international operator’s job will start from the doorsteps of citizens, and then they would transport it to the landfill, besides its segregation, recycling and its use in power generating in sequential stages. Some 9,000 tons of garbage is generated in Karachi everyday, but not more than 30 per cent of it heads towards landfills.