Even after the lapse of more than 60 years, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) is still struggling to find a permanent landfill site in the federal capital, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The federal capital, with a population of about 1.5 million, generates almost 800 tons of garbage a day but there is no permanent dumping site to dispose this huge amount of garbage.
Sources in the CDA told Pakistan Today that the total daily production of garbage in Islamabad was 800 tons but due to lack a proper dumping site, only 600 tons could be disposed of daily, while the rest remained in the residential localities. “Of the total daily production of garbage, the quantity of hazardous hospital waste is 10 tons,” he said.
The CDA is struggling to introduce an effective and modern system of waste management on permanent basis to resolve this problem but these efforts seem useless. The authority, which relishes its slogan “Clean and Green Islamabad”, has failed so far to comply with its motto even after having a budget of over Rs 28 billion.
MAKESHIFT SITES IRK CITIZENS: Islamabad citizens have long counted the absence of a proper landfill site as the second unpardonable deficiency on the part of the CDA after the absence of a public transport system in the federal capital.
In 2006, the CDA planned to construct a landfill site at Kurri village on over 100 acres of land, but the residents and environmentalists cried out over the issue and moved the court for hazardous impacts on health.
Another project for dumping garbage in an open area of H-10 sector, opposite to the two residential sectors, is exposing citizens to several kinds of diseases.
Bad smell arousing from heaps of garbage dumped in sector H-10 and trash trolleys in various residential areas shows the level by which the civic body is concerned about its drive for cleanliness. The residents and visitors are of the view that these dumping sites were inadequate and had become a source of diseases and should be immediately shifted.
Interestingly, the CDA recently launched an anti-littering campaign to clean the city without addressing the basic problem of solid waste disposal.
An official said that many companies approached the civic body to remove the waste but they lost interest when the CDA rejected their demand for a huge piece of land. “They were more interested in having 30 to 35 acres of land for waste disposal,” the official said. He said Fauji Cement was assisting the authority in garbage disposal as it lifted almost entire solid waste from the newly-developed site in Sector I-14 for its own use.
‘WE ARE WORKING ON IT’: CDA Spokesman Ramzan Sajid said a survey was underway to find a suitable place for setting up a modern and permanent landfill site. He added that once the survey completed, the CDA would complete the project of setting up permanent garbage dumping site in a year.
He further said the existing dumping site was being shifted from G-10 sector to the area between I-16 and I-17 sectors temporarily and the process would be completed within 15 days. One-year project had been given to the Fauji Cement Corporation until the commissioning of permanent landfill site, the spokesman said, adding that the contract would be extended after one year.
