Quetta’s scenic beauty suffers due to lack of garbage disposal services

The picturesque city of Quetta is fast becoming dotted with heaps of garbage due to the inability of the city’s municipal department to clean up tonnes of garbage on a daily basis.

The city produces 12,000 tonnes of garbage daily but the Quetta Metropolitan Corporation has the resources and manpower to handle only 300 tonnes. The result is an accumulation of 900 tonnes of garbage, making the historical city reek of a foul smell.

Huge piles of trash can be seen in and around the city’s suburban areas including Sariab Road, Brewery Road, Satellite Town, Patel Road and Fatima Jinnah Road. Residential areas, educational institutions and the city’s main intersections now resemble a garbage dump.

Talking to Geo News, Quetta Mayor Dr Kaleemullah Kakar said that the city at present has over 80,000 tonnes of garbage while the department lacks the necessary resources for the pick-up and disposal.

“The department has garbage trucks provided by Japan in 1998, most of which are in dismal condition. We have a workforce of only 500 people,” said the mayor.

According to municipal authorities, the provincial government has started the phased purchasing of 60 new vehicles worth Rs450 million. Additionally, local government officials have been requested to add 3,200 workers, which are expected to join the workforce soon.

Kalimullah also said that unlike other cities, garbage pick-up and disposal services in Quetta have not been outsourced to contractors. He said that lifting a tonne of garbage costs Rs9,000 currently, while it would cost only half if a third party is hired for the services. This could result in an annual saving of Rs450mn, he says.

The mayor informed Geo News that he has held talks with Chief Minister Balochistan regarding contracting third parties for garbage pick-up in 35 out of 58 union councils. Delay is being seen on the local government’s end, he added.

A month-long cleanliness campaign was held in mid-2016 in Quetta last year. According to the municipal authorities, Rs50mn were spent on the campaign and 40,000 tonnes of garbage were disposed off. In the second phase, after a gap of a few months, Rs80mn were claimed to have been spent on the disposal of 40,000 tonnes of trash. The third phase has already begun, in which Rs80mn are to be spent and 40,000 tonnes of garbage are to be disposed off.

Quetta’s residents, however, complain that Rs130mn were spent on the clean-up campaign but the city has seen no improvement. They said a permanent solutions needs to be implemented instead of successive campaigns.