There are some things in life you just cannot get away from namely — air, water and food. Waste disposal may not be as urgent a requirement, but in the long run it is just as important. If waste is not disposed of properly, the day will come (and it is almost upon us) when our deaths will be a direct consequence of this.

What mental illness, ignorance and superstition are to the mind, a dirty environment is to the body. We work on building schools, look askance at black magic and ban controversial websites, yet we sweep within and defile without. Do you not find it aberrant that a country having a nuclear programme has no effective waste management system? It is strange that we have not even begun to solve the problem of solid waste management (SWM) which has to be one of our priorities.

Solid waste, such as household garbage, industrial waste, commercial waste (for example from slaughter houses) and waste from construction sites requires proper disposal. At this point we are not talking about untreated sewage, hazardous chemical waste or nuclear waste.

The responsibility for providing facilities for proper waste management rests with civic authorities, however it is up to the citizens to use the facilities provided.

In 2007, the World Bank published a report on SWM which pertains only to some cities and areas of Punjab. One of the conclusions of the report was that at a national level, there is no comprehensive solid waste management guideline that addresses all important waste categories. An action plan with a concrete approach and allocation of financial and human resources is yet to be developed.

The report also said that according to a rough estimate, the total household waste from just nine cities of Punjab was 10,000 tons per day, or 3.3 million tons per year. Presently, waste collection services in the nine cities of Punjab are responsible for collecting between 40 per cent to 70 percent waste disposed.

Only part of the waste collected is deposited in official facilities. The rest is simply dumped anywhere, in the street, in empty plots, drains and water courses. There has to be a final disposal of the rubbish collected. There is no properly designed and operated sanitary landfill in the nine cities – and reportedly not in the whole of Punjab or Pakistan.

It isn’t as though solid waste management is a lost cause in Pakistan. All it needs is planning and the will to make it work. There is always another option which is to ignore our environment. However, if we do that the problems it poses will not die away. We will.