ISLAMABAD, May 27 (APP):Senate Sub-Committee on Climate Change and environmental experts Monday raised concerns over prevailing sanitation system and garbage disposal methods in the federal capital.
Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Senator Muhammad Ali Khan Saif, and the representative of civil society from Green Force, Cristina Afridi and Dr Dushka Syed expressed their serious concerns about the current system of sanitation and garbage disposals.
The committee members criticized poor sanitation and waste disposal management for both the encroachments (Slums or Kachi Abadi) as well as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) planned sectors.
The sub-committee headed by Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed conducted a visit of the water channels (Nullahs) of the federal capital to assess the environmental conditions of these natural water courses.
The committee had also visited a proposed land fill site in Sangjani for the dumping of garbage of the federal capital.
The sub-committee was informed that 20 Nullahs of the federal capital’s sectors had similar problems, whether in posh localities or katchi abadis, of unplanned construction both were without proper sewerage or sanitation facilities and without a nullah Management system.
During their visit to the proposed landfill site at Sangjani, the sub-committee was given a briefing by CDA Member (Planning) of the account of the landfill site selected earlier in 2004, of 125 acres close to the federal capital.
“A foreign donor has even promised a grant and the Environmental Protection Agency (PAK-EPA) at that time have given the no objection certificate (NOC) but the project has been shelved in 2010, as the proposed land has been was given to a developer,” he told the sub-committee.
Senator Mushahid Hussain termed this ‘an act of criminal negligence done to protect vested interests at the expense of the people of Islamabad’.
He said, “Senate will ensure that a landfill site is selected and also Islamabad becomes a plastic-free zone in 2019.”
It was decided that in the next meeting of the sub-committee all the relevant stakeholders would be invited to present their concerns. The government departments would present their plans to mitigate the situation with planned timelines, it added.
The sub-committee was accompanied by EPA DG and CDA Director Administration and Director Environment.
It may be mentioned here that CDA had released around Rs5 million after a year’s delay for the project.
However, a consultant will be hired for geo-tagging of the proposed site and evaluation of the aquifer to avoid its pollution as 750-800 metric tonnes of garbage per day would be disposed at the Sangjani landfill site.
The landfill site comprises of 70 acres of land allocated for garbage dumping where the project would be completed in four months duration where the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) would start solid waste dumping after two months on temporary basis.