Islamabad: Save residents from nauseating odour H-10

[Naveed Yaseen]

Noor Aftab

The stinking smell of solid waste material collected in Sector H-10 makes a mockery of the slogan of ‘Islamabad: the beautiful’, generally touted as famous for its environment-friendly atmosphere.

All the excitement of the visitors who enter the premises of the capital city after travelling through motorway gets a big jolt when they have to inhale the stench on the roads in sectors G-10 and G-11. The odour makes a mockery of the board installed at the entry point on the Kashmir Highway that reads ‘Welcome to Islamabad, the beautiful’ and leaves an unpleasant impression about the city at the very outset.

“I was really in a fix when I observed foul smell on the roads because I did not have any idea that there was a garbage dumping site near Sector G-10. It’s really disgusting to observe any such thing soon after entering Islamabad,” said Mansoor Bhatti who reached Islamabad via motorway with his family members.

Besides leaving a bad impression on the visitors from other cities, the stench is a nuisance for the residents of the nearby sectors who fume and fre but unfortunately can do nothing to get rid of the nauseating smell.

“It is astonishing to see collection of garbage near the residential sectors where thousands of residents are facing worst kind of smell even while sitting in their houses,” said Ismail Khan, a resident of Sector G-10. He said CDA can use any other site for collection of garbage particularly on the outskirts of the city, but despite repeated complaints it continues to follow this loathsome practice without realising the miseries of the people.

The sanitation staff members of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) collect solid waste from each and every sector that is transported to Sector H-10 where workers of Fauji Cement Company collect the waste to convert the garbage into fuel after it reached an agreement with the CDA.

CDA’s Director General (Civic Management) Syed Mustafain Kazmi told ‘The News that Sector H-10 project was launched on temporary basis for resolving issue of garbage as controversies developed on the proposed Kuri Landfill Project. “CDA is at the moment not able to start construction work on Kuri Landfill Project as the court had issued a stay order over various petitions filed by residents of the Kurri area,” he said.

CDA had proposed the country’s first landfill site on Kuri Road, Islamabad, in 2006, but the local residents and environmentalists approached the court that issued stay order against construction work on the project. Since then the project did not see the light of the day and CDA has been pursuing its past practice of dumping garbage in Sector H-10.

As per 1988 census, the total population of Islamabad is 805,000. Islamabad consists of urban and rural areas having a population of 529,180 and 281,750 respectively. CDA is only collecting solid waste from urban areas of Islamabad. However, CDA intends to start collection of municipal solid waste from the rural areas of Islamabad too so as to cover whole of Islamabad Capital Territory. The waste characterisation study conducted by UAE-based Ceres Associates in the past revealed that the total waste generated in Islamabad by its urban resident works out as 425 tons per day including card board (1,711kg), tetra pack (1,721kg), cloth (8,475kg), paper (4,663kg), plastic (12,921kg), metals (199 kg), aluminium (36kg), glass (2,202kg), wood (303 kg), construction and demolition waste (3,809kg), green waste (116,273kg) and other material (630 kg).

According to one of the surveys conducted by Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency, the volume of waste of sectors G-6, I-8, I-10 and I-11 is higher than other sectors. Sectors I-10 and I-11 are known as industrial area and most of the waste from these areas is rubble waste such as bricks, sludge and concrete blocks etc. The waste from Sector I-8 is also usually rubble waste, but I-8 is not an industrial area. Sector G-6 is known as commercial area, so it produces high amount of waste daily. The solid waste is also collected by around 50 kabarias that operate in almost all the sectors of Islamabad.

Every ‘Kabaria’ has 10-15 scavengers who bring recyclable waste to each daily, in addition to sweepers. One ‘Kabaria’ daily gets recyclable material from 300 kg to 700 kg. Every scavenger brings 10-20 kg of recyclable material and sells it out to the ‘kabaria’.

Syed Mustafain Kazmi said all possible remedial measures have been taken in line with the modern trends to control smell and avoid any environmental hazard in the area. “No amount of solid waste is being dumped anywhere in the capital city as all the collected garbage is given to FCC that recycles it to generate fuel,” he said.

He said when it rains no remedial measures work and it becomes difficult to control the stench. “Sometimes it becomes too difficult to control smell in kitchens, so one should realise that when garbage of hundreds of tons is collected then it is not always possible to avoid the stinking odour.”

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=191910