KARACHI:Under the World Bank Solid Waste Emergency and Efficiency Projects (SWEEP) worth $11 million, a pre-drone survey of all the 38 Nullahs of KMC has been conducted while environmental and socio-economic management survey of Nullahs and dump sites is being conducted as per the bank’s requirement.
This was disclosed in a meeting held here with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in the chair. The meeting was attended by Minister Local Government Nasir Shah, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary Local Government Roshan Shaikh, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi, PD Competitive and Livable City of Karachi (CLICK) Zubair Channa and others.
The Sindh chief minister said that under rain emergency arrangements, he had released Rs229 million and placed the funds at the disposal of all divisional commissioners. “I had issued directives through the chief secretary to all the DCs and MCs to clean the Nullahs and make necessary arrangements for disposal of rain water.” He added that the commissioner Karachi requested for additional funds of Rs 30 million which had also been released.
The Minister Local Government said that Rain Emergency Cells had been established at offices of LG Department, commissioners, DCs, and at all Municipal Committees and 1,093 complaint center had been established. The chief minister said that the World Bank had agreed to invest US$ 100 million for improvement of solid waste system in Karachi.
It may be noted that the SWEEP was conceived in November 2019. The project includes improvement of garbage transfer stations as per international standards, the establishment of modern landfill site at Dhabeji, upgradation of Jam Chakro Landfill site, emergency intervention to clean Nullahs of Karachi, which served as main sewage carrier of city and are being undertaken. SWEEP has an allocation of $11.0 million for the emergency component.
Solid waste collection and disposal system: Briefing the chief minister, PD CLICK Project Zubair Channa said that the concept note of SWEEP Project was approved by the Planning Commission on June 8, 2020. On the recommendation of WB and as a Stop-gap arrangement CLICK was assigned the task of SWEEP. The CLICK was authorized to undertake Nullahs cleaning exercise as defined in the SWEEP. At this, the chief minister said that the Sindh government was investing $8 million from its resources which would be retro-effectively reimbursed by the World Bank.
Channa said that the permission of opening assignment account had been given by finance department as well as AG Sindh. The National Bank would issue an account number by Monday.
The methodology adopted: Zubair Channa told the chief minister that the methodology adopted for payment to the contractors was quite transparent and foolproof. He added that the amount would be paid to contractors based on the quantum of sludge taken out from Nullahs and disposed of or dumped.
At Jam Chakro, a 10-acres land and TP-1 (old sludge tanks) have been identified as designed dump sites. Third-party qualification of sludge disposed of dump sites – NESPAK has been given monitoring and spot-checking assignment.
The district-specific QR coded slips would be printed for each district. The NESPAK on the basis of the slip would again quantify the sludge at the dumping site. Only 38 major Nullas under the administration of KMC have been undertaken in the SWEEP.
The PD told the chief minister that pre-drone surveys of all the 38 Nullahs of KMC had been conducted. The environmental and socio-economic management survey of Nullahs and dumping sites was also being conducted as per the World Bank requirement.
DISTT CENTRAL: The chief minister was told that the excavation or cleaning of Nullahs had been started in the city. So far quantity 295,824 tons of garbage and sludge had been taken from different Nullahs located in different districts. This includes 64,269 tons from Central, 86333 tons from West, 55911 tons from South, 77001 tons from East and 12310 tons from Malir.
At present, 33 excavators and 69 dumpers have been engaged in different districts to remove the sludge from the Nullahs. The chief minister was told that power outage by KE and HESCO was creating issues of the closure of main pumping stations at disposal points. AT this, the chief minister directed the energy department to talk to KE and HESCO and direct them to exempt pumping stations from their load-shedding.
The chief minister said that the issue of cleaning and reconstruction of Nullahs in Karachi were being made under SWEEP. It would resolve the issue once for all and then their maintenance would be made by the KMC, he said.
Shah said that more than 50 percent of solid waste dumped in open Nullahs was one issue and illegal allotment and encroachments along Nullahs was another. He directed the chief secretary to resolve both the issues by giving necessary directives to the concerned departments and institutions.