Sindh aims to be first in creating electricity from trash

Karachi (HRNW) With rolling blackouts refusing to let go of the country, Sindh hopes to become the first province in the country to mine heaps of useless garbage for electrical power and kill two birds with one stone.

This was disclosed on Monday by Karachi Administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab in a ceremony where Sindh Local Government, Housing and Town Planning, and Public Health Engineering Minister Nasir Shah launched a new garbage collection service in Karachi’s District Central.

“Garbage is like gold, and the Sindh government will not waste this precious resource,” he said as Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) Managing Director Zubair Channa sat in attendance.

Wahab noted that the SSWMB collects around 8,500 tons of garbage from across the city daily. With the expansion of the collection service in the densely populated District Central, he hoped that his figure would rise to 10,000 tons daily.

He added that the provincial government has already asked four interested companies to submit proposals on converting trash into power.

The city’s administrator noted that they were rightly criticized for not being able to clean Korangi and Central districts, adding that there were certain issues that delayed the launch of the cleanliness operation in these areas. Despite this, he maintained that the SSWMB provided all possible support to staff in these districts.

He went on to state how the Sindh government had solved the problem of mass transport in the city by completing the infrastructure work on the Orange Line and that the bus service is expected to start operations in the next few weeks. In this regard, he pointed out that they have placed the order for 240 new buses which will ply on seven major thoroughfares. Of these, 119 have been built in China.

Moreover, they will import around 288 ambulances for the city which will operate under the soon-to-be-launched Rescue 1122 service in the city.

SSWMB Managing Director Channa noted that they are introducing trash compactors in the city which will help eliminate the need for landfills and smaller garbage collection depots. This machine, he said, will be able to compress around 20-25 tons of garbage.

Earlier, Shah said that they had embarked on the “Clean Karachi Now” plan as outlined by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, launching a door-to-door garbage collection operation in District Central.

Having cut the ceremonial tape to launch the cleanup operation, Shah said that they had also launched cleanup operations in three districts of Karachi, including North Nazimabad in District West, Model and Landhi zones in Korangi District.