Fast becoming an urban nightmare, Karachi’s dire governance failures are finally becoming a topic of conversation, even if a little too late. Over the past year, the judicial commission of the Supreme Court has been seeking update reports from government departments on access and supply of water, sanitation and on the waste disposal system in the city. One would hope the relevant departments would spur into action, but accountability has never been a strong suit of our governments.
Though the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) was established in 2014, to date it has failed to do the simple job of lifting garbage and taking it to landfills. The board manages two landfill sites (Jam Chakro and Gond Pass), and there are 19 civic agencies, including cantonment boards, responsible to handle solid waste.
To put this in perspective, the city produces a mammoth 12,000 tons of solid waste everyday according to the SSWMB (it used to be 9,000 in 2005), but other estimates suggest the waste is close to 20,000. Only half of the total waste actually reaches the landfill. The result: a mounting volume of decomposing waste found on streets, roads, old railway lines and open drains. This includes not only residential but industrial and medical waste that is burnt openly and which produces toxic gases that are contributing to harmful diseases and infections in the city. The waste is also sometimes used for illegal landfilling by land grabbers.
Other numbers further convey the magnitude of the issue. According to Punjab government, waste generation per capita in Pakistan is around 0.612 kg per day. The world average according to World Bank is 0.64 kg per day. This column’s rough estimation suggests that per capita production of waste in Karachi is 1.34 kg per day: Karachi produces double the waste produced in the country, and the world.
The SSWMB has contracted out the task of garbage collection and cleaning the city to two Chinese companies under a seven-year contract to transport garbage to landfills. The project will cost $20 million each year. The board alleges that the civic agencies that outsource the contracts of transporting and disposing waste to landfills aren’t ensuring that the contractors actually deliver. Many contractors end up dumping the waste across the city and burning it despite being paid. It promised to take those municipal departments to task that were found dumping waste across the city instead of at landfill sites.
Now the contracting to Chinese companies might help. The collection would go hand in hand with generation of 200MW electricity using the collected garbage. Meanwhile, cycle-rickshaws will pick garbage from doorsteps, and garbage transfer stations in the city will be set up.
Encouraging as these new developments be, what remains to be seen is whether promises made by the SSWMB will actually see light of the day or fall prey to toxic bureaucracy that is a characteristic of mega projects taken on by this provincial government. Case in point is the board transferring the current CEO of SSWMB on Friday and bringing another official to take over the post just overnight. A shaky leadership involving a lot of money, many unfulfilled promises and tall claims. Does not inspire trust, does it?