KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and World Bank Country director Patchamuthu Illangovan have agreed to work together for making Sindh Solid Waste Management Authority more effective and introduce changing in cropping pattern to improve the rural economy.
This decision was taken here on Friday in a meeting between the two here at CM House. The meeting was attended by Chairperson P&D Naheed Shah and PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro.
The chief minister said that the Sindh Solid Waste Management Authority (SSWMA) has been established. He added that it was a new body and needed capacity building so that it could work scientifically with the best efficiency.
The World Bank country chief said that he would send solid waste management experts to Sindh government and through P&D a detailed plan would be worked out to improve the capacity of the authority so that not only its efficiency in solid waste disposal and management could be improved but it must become a self-sufficient organization.
It was agreed that SSWMA’s capacity building would be made in such a way so that it could work all over Sindh in different phases. In the first phase it would start work in divisional headquarters and then in district headquarters.
The chief minister said that our growers were engaged in traditional crops of high deltaic and low yield. “I want to introduce a major change in cropping pattern in which low deltaic crops can be grown with high yield,” he said and added this would improve the rural economy.
Shah said that a separate cropping system should also be developed for small growers. “We have to improve their income by switching them over to orchards-cum-cash crops,” he said.
World Bank Country Director Patchamuthu Illangovan said that he would bring global agricultural experts here with him and would have their meeting with the Agriculture department and P&D experts. He added that they would prepare a plan to implement in phases.
The chief minister said that the provincial government was working in mother-child health and nutrition programmes in different districts, including Thar. This programme has produced some good results.
A World Bank team would come shortly and hold a meeting with Sindh government concerned officers to shape up reforms in agriculture and solid waste management sectors.
