LAHORE/TOBA TEK SINGH: As the jurisdiction is being increased to bring other districts of the division on a par with the Lahore City District in terms of cleanliness, the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) is all set to take over the solid waste management control in the districts of Kasur, Sheikhupura and Nankana Sahib in near future.

Since the Services and Assessment Management Agreement has also been signed between the LWMC and the respective municipal or district councils, the scheme is a part of the Punjab government’s plan to ensure cleaning of all urban and rural areas on a daily basis through an effective solid waste management system, as being practiced in Lahore.

“We have signed agreements with the respective authorities in the districts of Kasur, Sheikhupura and Nankana Sahib to take over the entire SWM control of these districts within this month,” LWMC Managing Director Babar Sahib Din told Dawn on Saturday.

“After taking over the existing outdated SWM system there, we will move toward the outsourcing model under which we will engage private firms in primary and secondary waste collection and disposal in these districts.”

Municipal bodies sign agreement with Faisalabad WMC

To a question, he said the shortlisting of firms would be made through a transparent bidding process that would take around two months to complete.

“You can say the new cleanliness system will be put in place in these districts within a period of three months,” the LWMC MD added.

He said the need to introduce the plan emerged after the Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif sought better sanitation in Punjab on the pattern of Lahore under the Suthra Punjab drive. “It is a programme that will be implemented at grassroots level starting from village/mauza /UC to tehsil to district headquarters.

“In fact the Baldias (MCs etc) have miserably failed to keep cities, towns, villages etc clean. Therefore, it is the need of the hour to introduce modern systems in this regard,” he argued.

On the other hand, Minister for Local Government Zeeshan Rafiq in a meeting held here on Saturday directed the LWMC to quickly complete all process to put the new system in place at the adjoining districts. Since the Services and Assessment Management Agreements have been signed, the LWMC should start bidding related jobs, he sought.

He said according to the policy there should be no overlapping of rehabilitation work at any place by different agencies. All areas regarding municipal facilities should be equipped well.

“Whether the development scheme is small or big, the quality should be ensured,” he said, adding that joint teams of the district administration, WASA, LWMC and LDA must work together to accomplish this task. Development schemes for the proposed repair and maintenance in Lahore were reviewed during the meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, the Lahore commissioner said that all areas of Lahore city will be targeted and the details of rehabilitation works must be prepared for all nine zones. In all these zones, sewerage, drainage, road and PCC repair, patchwork and street lights related works would be carried out. He also clarified that no second agency would work in one place and area of expertise of other agency.

Later, a meeting was also held regarding sanitation and water filtration plants under the chairmanship of minister Zeeshan Rafiq and commissioner. The meeting was told that there were a total 960 water plants in the city, of which 285 were not operating. MCL’s 79 out of 87 water filtration plants were operational while all 574 water filtration plants of WASA were also operational.

LDA DG Tahir Farooq, DC Rafia Haider, Director Development Javed Rashid Chauhan, DC Sheikhupura, Dr Waqar Khan, DC Nankana Muhammad Arshad, MD WASA Ghufran Ahmed, CEO Ab e Pak Authority Muhammad Zohaib Butt, Chief Engineer Asrar Saeed, Deputy Director Hafiz Iqbal and officers of MCL and other departments were also present in the meeting.

FWMC: An agreement was reached on Saturday between the Faisalabad Waste Management Company (FWMC) and 24 local bodies of Faisalabad division in a meeting held in the presence of Commissioner Silwat Saeed who handed over the agreement details to the DCs of all four districts.

A press release said under the agreement between the district governments and municipal committees of the division, sanitation staff and machinery in the four district councils, cities and municipal committees of the division would be handed over to the FWMC for better waste management.

FWMC CEO Rauf Ahmed, DCs of Jhang, Toba and Chiniot and assistant commissioners of all the tehsils the four districts, director of local government and municipal officers were also present.

Earlier, the FWMC board of directors agreed to take over solid waste management services in all 24 local bodies.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2024