ISLAMABAD: Due to ill-planning of Capital Development Authority (CDA), the capital does not have a permanent site for disposing of its garbage, despite the lapse of almost 57 years.
The civic management had previously used I-12, D-12, H-10 and H-11 site along the Kashmir Highway to dump the garbage but now a roadway is being constructed there under a new metro bus extension project.
The extension of metro bus project is being constructed from Peshawar Mor to New Airport along the Kashmir Highway.
“Earlier, the CDA used to dump solid waste material in H series for land filing purposes as it was in a depression, but the CDA has not been following proper procedures like waste segregation which divides waste into dry and wet.
Dry waste includes wood and related products, metals and glass. Wet waste, typically refers to organic waste usually generated by eating establishments and are heavy in weight due to dampness,” said an official of the CDA’s Planning Wing, while requesting anonymity.
He further said that there is a proper channel of land filling adopted by the civic management which includes designing and also environmental contamination procedures.
He said that since the landfill site of CDA is being used by the Bahria Town management, federal capital is being run sans any proper and permanent landfill site.
It is pertinent to mention here that the CDA has started dumping around 700 metric tonnes of solid waste at the existing site in I-12 in 2011. Later, a new site was selected in Sector D-12 near Margalla Hills.
However, after the Supreme Court took notice, the CDA announced in January 2013 that the dumping site would be shifted from Sector D-12 to another place. But it was shifted back to Sector I-12. One year later, the civic body again decided to shift the garbage dumping site.
The meeting held on Wednesday noted that the dumping site had to be shifted from its existing site as development work in Sector I-12 would soon be initiated.
The establishment of a proper landfill site has been a lingering issue for the CDA.
In the late 1980s, the authority started dumping garbage in Sector H-12 and continued the practice till 2006, only to shift it to Sector H-11.
The CDA then began dumping garbage in Sector I-14 in 2010. In 2011, another site in Sector I-12 was chosen and then in 2013, a site in Sector D-12 was selected.
When contacted, CDA Spokesperson Mazhar Hussain said that proper and permanent dumping site has been proposed and CDA teams have been working on it. Soon, the capital would get a proper landfill site.