Poor garbage system is a major problem in Pakistan. Many popular cities of Pakistan are victim of this. Lahore, the heart of Punjab, generates 5200 tons of solid waste per day.According to a research, the recycling industry in Lahore is not well-organized. An engineer Mumtaz Hussain, from his perspective, composting methods are practiced for disposal of waste at a small scale. Municipal waste is tipped in open areas where it is exposed to weathering and fire hazards.
The machinery and equipment which are used for storage and handling the waste are not properly working. Informing about more problems, the head of Municipal Organization said that special wastes are not treated according to the scientific practices. There is no political support or social acceptances.
The garbage produced in Lahore can roughly be classified into three types:
⦁ Municipal solid waste
⦁ Hospital waste
⦁ Persistent organic pollutants
According to a research 97% of Lahore’s landfills content consists of MSW. This accumulation is due to no proper waste collection, dumping of waste on streets, uncontrolled landfills sanitary sited and unawareness of hazards among public.“Lahore is going through severe environmental crises”
said Hammad Naqi Khan, the director general of the World Wide Fund for nature Pakistan. Dr. Farzana Anees is a senior medical officer. She said,
“we have noted many cases of dehydration and environmental degradation that directly affects human health’’
It has been observed that much of the waste ends up in dumps, alleyways and open spaces where it remains for weeks while some of it is burnt, causing many serious problems. Surely, Lahore deserves better. Though this situation has persisted for decades, it has become worse over the past few years. To solve the problem, we need is to pay attention. Experts say,
“the problem is that the state does not treat waste management and poor garbage system in a holistic manner”
The need is to spread awareness among citizens and for this purpose media can play a vital role. For this purpose different authorities should conduct different seminars, conferences in different universities and colleges. Though law exists, less of them are being enforced, and acted upon to solve poor garbage system in Lahore. A famous expert, in his interview, said that as an individual at first, try yourself to minimize the amount of garbage you produce; try to recycle. Now as for the big step, before dumping make sure to classify the different types of garbage.When asked, the local citizens they said, “Garbage spills on to road owing to the lack of disposal facilities” and the answer of the head regarding the upper statement, “We are working on this situation’’.
The experts say that, the improvement of people and private sectors through NGOs could improve the efficiency of poor garbage system. Public awareness should be created especially at primary level.Speaking to the people who collects garbage, it seems that there are financial problems. They are not pleased with their financial compensation; the company is not receiving payment from Government or at least not in a timely fashion. This is a serious problem facing by the city that is needed to be solved. Lahore waste management company has been engaged with two famous companies of Turkey, Albayrak and Oz Pak in collaboration with the LWMC, is working to clean Lahore. Pollution free environment play an important role for the development and progress of any city and it is important, said head of LWMC.
The methods to clean are in following;
- Bring reusable bags and containers when shopping, traveling, or packing lunches or leftovers.
- Choose products that is returnable, reusable, or refillable over single-use items.
- Avoid individually wrapped items, snack packs, and single-serve containers.
- Purchase items such as dish soap and laundry detergents in concentrate forms.
The need is to look in to the matter by different authorities and clean Lahore.
The writer is Student of Media studies in Punjab University one can access through the following address:([email protected])