Garbage heaps are accumulating all over the Sindh metropolis because District Municipal Corporations (DMCs), including DMC South, are facing an acute shortage of funds, sources told Business Recorder on Saturday. Sources said that the administrations, including those of districts Central and South, were also facing a severe shortage of funds, completely halting their cleanliness drive, creating serious health hazards for the common man.
Worst-hit areas included union councils in Lyari, Saddar, Liaquatabad and elsewhere. District Municipal Corporations, sources said, were also unable to dump garbage at various landfill sites in a timely manner because of financial constraints. Sources said that the DMCs were facing the economic crunch because KMC had not empowered them any financial independence under the local government system of 1979. They claimed that although the CDGK had been abolished, its power to collect revenue from various sources had not be devolved to DMCs.
Sources said that Saddar Town demanded grant 50 Rs million to pay back its fuel supplier. "The grant has still not been approved by the Sindh government," they added. "We are obtaining fuel on credit to run vehicles for lifting garbage from various areas and dumping it at landfill sites," source in Lyari district administration maintained.
Sources said that although the city's landfill sites could absorb most of the solid waste produced on a daily basis in the city, hardly 40 per cent of the waste was collected mainly because of lack of resources and poorly administered collection and disposal system. Most of the city's waste remained uncollected for long periods of time. Meanwhile, employees of DMC South, primarily Saddar and Lyari Towns, are still waiting for the release of their salaries for the past two months, sources told this correspondent. They said that these workers had not been paid salaries for January and February this year.