ISLAMABAD: The latest report from the auditor general of Pakistan reveals how Capital Development Authority (CDA) officials have kept the city deprived of its first-ever and much-needed landfill site, pointing out protracted delays in the execution of the Rs1 billion Kuri landfill project.

“Audit noted the Planning Wing CDA failed to start the construction of Scientific Sanitary Landfill project in Kuri for improvement of environment as approved by the [Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec)] in 2004, despite the lapse of 12 years,” the audit report said.

Sources said that following approval from the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), an international consultant’s report had selected the Kuri site for the capital’s first landfill. But in 2012, the CDA board suddenly decided to switch the location from Kuri to H-10, and the temporary site has been moving from one place to another since then.

Former official accuses CDA of repeatedly changing project site due to ‘mala fide intent’

According to the audit, CDA’s Planning Wing allocated 100 acres for a project for the ‘Improvement of Environment by Solid Waste Management in Islamabad’, and the PC-1 for the Rs1bn project was approved by Ecnec in 2004 on the condition that CDA would finance the project from its own resources.

Pak-EPA approved the environmental impact assessment (EIA) in Feb 2008 for the construction of a ‘Scientific Sanitary Landfill Village in Kuri, Zone IV of Islamabad’.

“Audit observed that construction of landfill project was not implemented due to issues of possession of acquired site in Kuri. Subsequently, it was decided by CDA board to re-locate the landfill site from Kuri to H-10 to I-12 and later on shifted to I-14 and I-15 Islamabad,” the report said.

At the moment, the report noted, around 800 tonnes of garbage was transported daily to an open dumping site in Sector I-12.

“The open dumping of solid waste near residential sectors and educational institutions is a serious hazard for human health and the environment,” the report pointed out, adding that the irregularity occurred due to weak internal controls.

The report also mentioned that while this irregularity was pointed out in March 2016, CDA did not reply to audit objections.

But while the report attributes the non-implementation of the project due to hurdles in taking possession of the acquired site, former CDA member Mustafain Kazmi – who played a leading role in this project – told Dawn the site was changed due to “mala fide intentions”.

“I worked for this project for years… we had Pak-EPA approval and Ecnec approval. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) supported CDA in this project and after a two-year study, a Japanese consultant finalised [the Kuri] site, which was an ideal place for developing a landfill,” Mr Kazmi said.

However, he accused CDA of changing the site to benefit vested interests and said the civic agency’s board had approved the change of location; first from Kuri to H-10, and now to I-12.

CDA officials Dawn spoke to said a road to the landfill site was also constructed by the agency, but that too was systematically ceded to nearby housing schemes.

Jica has also trained CDA officials to manage the proposed landfill site and a number of CDA officers also visited Japan for capacity-building on how to manage the scientific landfill site.

CDA officials told Dawn that city managers are currently considering shifting the landfill site to yet another sector, H-16.

Here, it is proposed that a ‘waste-to-energy’ should be installed by a private firm on build operate and transfer (BOT) basis in order to produce electricity from garbage.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2017