SAHIWAL: The first-ever solid waste segregation, treatment and disposal (STD) plant in the city, which was built at a cost of Rs394.43 million to treat 150-200 tonnes of solid waste daily and convert it into fertiliser, has remained non-functional for the past four months.

Despite its successful trial run, the plant has been rendered inactive due to administrative failure by three departments – the Sahiwal Metropolitan Corporation (MC), The Urban Unit (TUU) of Lahore and the Local Government and Community Development Department (LG&CDD). None of them made arrangements to ensure its long-term operation and sustainability.

Dawn learned that though a formal handing-over agreement was signed on Nov 29, 2024, under which the operation of the plant was transferred to the MC, no strategy was finalised to keep it running.

TUU had carried out a pilot run for over eight months, during which it processed 20 tonnes of waste and produced fertiliser which was declared suitable for agricultural use by experts at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad.

Data shows that the STD plant was planned as a solution to Sahiwal’s decades-old problem of having no permanent dumping site for 80-100 tonnes of municipal waste collected daily. For the last six decades, the waste had been dumped at various sites around the city. The idea was to treat this waste scientifically and convert it into usable compost.

TUU and the Punjab LG&CDD arranged a piece of 25 acres of state land near village 87/9-L for the facility, which includes waste sorting and composting areas, a windrow pad, leachate pond, weighbridge, admin offices, a training academy, and parking for machinery and vehicles. A laboratory was also to be set up for compost testing and branding.

When the plant was planned, its budget was estimated at Rs144 million, but over the ensuing seven years, the plant’s cost went up to Rs394 million in 2021. Despite its completion in 2021 and a trial run in April 2022, the local MC staff lacked the capacity to run it. TUU was therefore tasked with training 15 to 20 MC staff members during the pilot phase. The compost produced, branded as ‘Sahiwal Compost’, was later tested and declared fit for agricultural use by the Soil Water Testing Research Laboratory, Lahore, and Ayub Agriculture Research Institute, Faisalabad. Field trials on maize crops in Gojra, Kamalia, Toba Tek Singh and Sahiwal showed the compost could halve the use of chemical fertilisers.

Unfortunately, no MC official bothered to run the plant and it went non-operational within 15 days in December 2024. Every day, 120-130 tonnes of solid waste is dumped by the MC. Just a few months back, it was dumped along the banks of Lower Bari Doab Canal, Jhal Road as there is no permanent dumping site in Sahiwal. Now, MC staff has turned the plant premises into landfill site.

The handing and taking over document says that the MC will get registration of the organic compost of Sahiwal from the Punjab Agriculture Department with the name “Urban Green” for its distribution and sale in the market because without branding no marketing can be done; also, the MC will establish a laboratory within three months for continuous lab analysis of the compost, which is also a prerequisite for branding the name. The handing/taking over document clearly outlines the above targets and now the plant is overseen by one chowkidar and one MC employee who visits the plant in the morning. The local staff burns solid waste and smoke constantly emerges from the plant, causing air pollution to surrounding villages.

This correspondent talked to TUU high-ups who said they have handed it over to MC.

Commissioner Shoaib Iqbal told Dawn that all solid waste management had been outsourced to a newly established company under the Punjab Government’s “Suthra Punjab Programme” and the STD plant will also be handed over to the newly established company named “Sahiwal Water and Sanitation Services Company” (SWSSC). Company CEO Iftikhar Ali told Dawn that no communication has yet been done in this regard from MC.

Interestingly, on Sunday there was an opening ceremony of SWSSC attended by Federal Minister Pir Imran Shah, MPAs Malik Arshad and Malik Nadeem and divisional and district heads, but none spoke about what will happen to the STD plant.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2025