Clean federal capital remains elusive dream

-Garbage not collected from stuffed waste dumpsters

–Residents forced to tolerate nauseous odour from garbage and wait for an outbreak of infectious diseases.

ISLAMABAD: Though the federal capital has set an example of planting saplings under the ‘Green and Clean Pakistan’ programme, the authorities concerned have exhibited a lukewarm response to cleanliness in the Capital.

A federal Capital reflects the picture of the entire country, yet the civic agency in Islamabad remains inert regarding garbage in the city which presents a dishonourable image to everyone including locals as well as foreigners.

Soon after holding the office, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government had expressed its resolve to change the public’s mindset towards the environment and inculcate a sense of responsibility to keep their surroundings clean.

In constant, the city’s major key stakeholder, the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI), appears insufficient to give the Capital a civilised look due to its financial constraints.

An official source in the MCI said, “Recently the responsibility for the Capital’s looks was delegated to the MCI in order to ease work burden on Capital Development Authority (CDA), but the move does not help the authorities to manage the city’s beauty due to the persistent tussle between both departments over fund sharing”.

He said that the MCI now comes under the city’s mayor and most of the responsibilities pertaining to civic issues have been transferred to it, but the former authority could not redress the citizens’ problems with meagre resources.

An official from the MCI sanitation wing disclosed that they had worked out several plans to deal with health hazardous waste material from the collection of waste from houses to its dumping.

Highlighting the insight projects, he said they have outsourced the garbage collection from houses of different sectors and remnant areas of the city are taking care of the MCI staffers.

He underlined the hardships facing by his department, saying that the capital is generating around 700 tons of garbage daily but there is a dire need for a permanent scientific dumping site.

He said that currently the all collected trash was being dumped at a temporary dumping site located in I-9 sector. The MCI had proposed a dumping site near Sangjani and wrote many times to the concerned authorities for its incapacity to handle garbage but the words seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

He further said he had written to CDA three times for allocating a permanent site for waste disposal but appropriate action was yet to be taken.

Mentioning the waste to energy plant, he told that the sanitation wing had also come up with various projects to convert this health-risk material in electricity generation, but it was also in limbo due to bureaucratic snags and financial constraints.

At present, the MCI is only working with the trash trollies placed in the streets of the federal Capital which is also presenting a picture of the MCI’s pathetic state of affairs as stuffed and uncovered waste dumpsters are wreaking havoc on the lives of residents.

Despite repeated public complaints, no let-up from MCI has been seen over the collection of garbage from stuffed waste dumpsters and residents are left with no option but to tolerate the nauseous odour and wait for the outbreak of an infectious disease.

The residents of the different sectors including G-6, G-7, G-8, G-9, G-10, I-8, I-9, I-10 and others complained about the delayed cleaning of waste bins which makes them more prone to communicable diseases like malaria, dengue and diarrhoea.