KARACHI, June 15: Sindh Minister for Environment Sheikh Mohammad Afzal has said that Rs20 billion is required annually for proper and safe disposal of garbage and waste in order to keep the city clean.Speaking at a press briefing along with Karachi Administrator Mohammad Hussain Syed at the latter’s camp office on Wednesday, the minister said that cleanliness in the metropolis was not the responsibility of only one organisation as many agencies besides the city government and towns were performing these services.

He said that a cleanliness drive was scheduled to be carried out from June 16 to 30 to stamp out environmental pollution, improve sanitation conditions and to formulate a comprehensive policy for future.

The minister said the campaign, which would be jointly conducted by the city government, town and union administrations, KWSB and other civic agencies, would also have full cooperation of the environment ministry. For this purpose, the city had been divided into eight zones, he said.

Zone 1 includes North Nazimabad and New Karachi; Zone 2 Shah Faisal, Korangi, Malir and Landhi; Zone 3 Liaquatabad, Gulberg and Gulshan Iqbal; Zone 4 SITE and Orangi; Zone 5 Keamari and Baldia; Zone 6 Saddar, Lyari and Jamshed towns; Zone 7 Bin Qasim Town and Zone 8 Gadap Town.

He said the campaign would help formulate a future policy whereby it would be decided as to how the resources were distributed among the organisations to ensure complete and proper disposal of garbage at landfill sites.

The minister said that the town administrators had also been directed to ensure maximum disposal of garbage to the landfill site. “We are considering strict action against the town administrator concerned if they fail to dispose of garbage properly,” he added. During the campaign, all the garbage would be dispatched to landfill sites. A town administrator or his representative would be present at the landfill site on a daily basis and monitor the work.

EDO Municipal Services Masood Alam would work as a focal person while the municipal services group would provide all facilities at the landfill sites.

The minister said no additional expenses would incur on this 15-day campaign. He praised the work of former city nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal and his team for managing good sanitation conditions in the city despite having limited resources. He appealed to people to join hands to deal with the situation as changing environmental conditions had become a challenge for everyone.

In reply to a query, the minister said that at all those places where the solid waste management had been privatised the contractor concerned would have to face action if they failed to dispose of garbage completely.

According to an estimate, he said, Karachi produced nine to 10 tonnes of garbage on a daily basis. Despite utilisation of all available resources, a sizeable portion of garbage was not transferred to landfill sites, he said, adding that civic bodies had only 28 to 30 per cent capacity to carry out the work.

Administrator Mohammad Hussain Syed asked elected representatives of all political parties to cooperate and support in this campaign. He said all city government departments, including the transport, master plan and education, would play their due role during this 15-day drive.—PPI