KARACHI: The Sindh Solid Waste Management Board has directed the Chinese company responsible for lifting and disposing of garbage in district East to make arrangements for 100 per cent removal of garbage in all localities.

The contracting firm had added 40 more three-wheeler hydraulic system rickshaws to further improve the arrangements for door-to-door garbage collection in the district.

SSWMB-East director Musheer Ahmed told Dawn that the number of three-wheelers had increased to 240 with the addition of 40 more vehicles.

He said that around 1,400 to 1,500 tonnes of garbage was lifted daily in the 31 union councils of the district.

The SSWMB official said that garbage collected from the houses was later shifted to 45 garbage transfer stations in the district. “Besides, there are big garbage containers placed in certain areas,” he added.

He said that the heaps of garbage if found or reported to the SSWMB at its complaint centre were removed within hours. “On average, we resolve 25 complaints of garbage heaps daily,” he added.

Meanwhile, a garbage mafia is learnt to have been fleecing people in several parts of the city, particularly in posh and salubrious areas, by charging them hefty amounts for collecting garbage from their houses.

Sources in the SSWMB told Dawn on Monday that the firms assigned waste management and door-to-door collection of garbage had lodged complaints against the garbage mafia that also manhandled their sanitation staff.

They said that the SSWMB had sought help of police and Rangers to ensure door-to-door collection of garbage in the city and got Section 144 of the criminal procedure code imposed on the unauthorised collection of garbage.

The sources said that the informal sector was involved in unauthorised door-to-door garbage collection, mainly by Afghan children, in different localities, including Clifton, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Bahadurabad, Sindhi Muslim Housing Society, PECHS, Saddar and University Road.

They said that the collected garbage was then shifted to makeshift dens where the recyclable waste, mainly metal, plastic, furniture and paper, was segregated and sold in the market by the mafia which had set up their dens in the nearby shantytowns in and around the localities of high and middle-income groups.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2022