KARACHI: The first batch of machines imported from China to lift garbage in Karachi’s district South has arrived at the Karachi port and the second shipment is expected to arrive next week, officials in the Sindh government told Dawn on Friday.

Jam Khan Shoro, Sindh minister for local government, said the first batch included 200 tricycle refuse vehicles, 1,300 handcarts, 5,000 dustbins of 240-litre capacity, several 280-litre steel dustbins, 3,200 dustbins of 260-litre capacity, showers to clean trees, mechanical sweepers and street-washing vehicles.

Officials at the CM House said that Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had directed Mr Shoro to get the machinery cleared at the earliest so that the garbage-lifting scheme could be launched without delay.

“The chief minister wants to launch the project before the [end] of this month,” an official in the Sindh government said. Mr Shoro said the second shipment of machines will arrive on Jan 10 and will include loaders and other heavy equipment.

The Chinese company, Changyi Kangjie Sanitation Engineering Company Limited, had won the Rs2bn annual contract to process waste in the city. The District South Municipal Corporation, with a majority of elected representatives from the Pakistan Peoples Party, was the first of Karachi’s six urban municipalities that agreed to the scheme and passed a resolution in this regard, a mandatory prerequisite for the plan.

DMC East, with a majority of representatives from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, followed suit and joined the project planned by the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board. “The equipment for DMC East will arrive soon,” Mr Shoro said.

The remaining four DMCs will be included in the scheme after they complete the prerequisites.

Officials explained that Karachi South produced the highest volume of waste — 1,300 tonnes a day — among the six districts of Karachi followed by Karachi East which produced around 1,000 tonnes of garbage a day.

The government would pay the Chinese firm Rs2bn each year, which, the officials claimed, was the least costly option by international standards. After the Chinese firm begins its operations, the city’s sanitation workers will be placed at the disposal of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board.

Officials said the Chinese firm would lift garbage from in front of houses, compress and shift it to designated garbage transfer stations in respective districts.

The company is in consultation with the government to transfer the garbage to a landfill site where it would establish a power plant to produce energy from the city’s garbage.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2017