From the manual sweeping of roads by thousand of sanitary workers to cleaning of the city by state-of-the-art machinery, Lahore was the first city to witness a change in solid waste management system.
The district office Solid Waste Management Department was taken over by Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) formally in March 2011 after a Services and Asset Management Agreement between the company and City District Government of Lahore. LWMC was established on 19th March 2010. The company outsourced the cleaning operation of Lahore to two Turkish companies, Ozpak and Albayrak. These companies were given the charge of waste collection, transportation, and disposal activities using latest machinery.
Replacing old trucks with 680 new high-tech mechanical sweepers, mini dumpers, mechanical washers and water bowsers came at a heavy price. The cost of cleaning the city surged from Rs2.5 billion to around 8 billion. By December 2012 both Turkish companies had taken over 138 union councils (UCs) out of 150, while the remaining UCs in the outskirts of Lahore were being managed by LWMC itself.
In very short time LWMC has proven its efficiency by keeping Lahore’s roads litter free. LWMC also launched massive awareness campaigns in collaboration with big brands. The company not only managed to impress the provincial government but also the government of neighbouring India. A three member delegation of officials from Balochistan’s Ministry of Local Government will also be paying a visit to LWSM to get in-depth details of the functioning of the improved waste management and explore the possibilities of replicating the system in Quetta.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 11th, 2014.