Administrative Set-up and State of Solid Waste Management
in Municipal Committee Kasur
Administrative Set-up
The Punjab Local government
Ordinance 1979 allows the municipalities to perform among others, some functions
that directly or indirectly deal with the health management in the urban local
councils called Municipal Communities, Municipal Corporation or Metropolitan
Corporation depending on the size of the city.
These are the compulsory functions of the Urban Local Councils. These include public Health, Water Supply,
Drainage, Drainage and Sewerage Schemes for commercial and industrial area,
Article of food and drink, Education, Public Safety and Town Planning. The Town Planning Branch is quite recently
established and Town Planning Officers (TPOs) are appointed in each of the
municipality and district council (rural local Council). This newly established
branch deals with Master plan, Site Development Schemes, Building Control,
Completion of Buildings or Alteration of Buildings, Maintenance of Streets,
Street Watering, Traffic Control, Arboriculture, Social Welfare and Community
Deployment.
The Administrative set-up of
municipal committee Kasur with subordinate staff and functions performed by the
officers is as under:
|
Chairman
/ Administrator |
||||||
|
Chief
Officer (Liaison
Officer) |
||||||
|
Health Branch |
Engineering Branch |
Education Branch |
Building
Branch |
Accounts Branch |
Taxation Branch |
Land Branch |
|
Health
Officer |
Municipal Engineer |
Education Officer |
Town Planning
Officer & Municipal
Architect |
Accounts Officer |
Taxation
Officer |
Land Officer |
Subordinate Staff and
Functions
|
Brach |
Staff |
Functions |
Subordinate Staff |
|
Health Branch |
Health Officer |
Sanitation Sewerage Dispensing Birth –Death Record |
Chief Sanitary Inspector =
1 Sanitary Inspector = 2 |
|
Engineering Branch |
Municipal Engineer |
Roads Construction and
maintenance Water supply Horticulture Street Lighting Fire Brigade |
Sub Engineers = 2 Head Clerk = 1 Electrician = 1 Water Supervisor = 1 |
|
Education Branch |
Education Officer |
Taking Care of Primary and
Middle schools of the municipal committee |
|
|
Building Branch |
Town Planner/ Municipal
Architects |
Building control Private Housing Schemes |
Building Inspector = 1 Building Clerk = 1 |
|
Accounts Branch |
Accounts Officer |
Maintaining all the
accounts of municipality |
Account Clerk Naib Qasid |
|
Taxation Branch |
Taxation Officer |
Recovery of all types of
Revenues to be collected in shape of Taxes |
|
|
Land Branch |
Land Officer |
Encroachments Demolition |
|
Although the staff in each
case is limited, but all these branches have sufficient functions to perform their
duties except in the case of Town Planning Officer (TPO) (in January
1997). Contradiction was observed very
clear between Town Planning Officer and the Municipal Architect. The legal
powers of town planner in city management were found weak and the role of Town
Planner was very limited in city management. With these weak function and
legislative powers of Town Planner, the control over development of haphazard
industry can easily be realized. The increasing environmental pollution in
Kasur can be generalized as a poor city management with limited role of Town
Planners.
Waste management, both
sewerage system and solid waste disposal, is the responsibility of the
municipal committee. The existing situation in the city about waste management
is discussed as under.
At present, piped sewerage system is available in
some of the localities whereas in rest of the city, open sewerage system is
prevailing. The wastewater form houses is collected through small brick paved
drains which are further connected with the main sewers and finally disposed to
rohi nullah at different points. In
locality named Basti Chiragh Shah, 10
disposal works were present with discharge capacity of 6 cusec each. Some of
these pumps were not in working condition thus resulting into ponds of sewer
water at several places. This sewage also carries industrial effluent at
different places on its way to the final disposal into the river. The water is
used by the farmers for irrigation purpose from this sewer mixed with highly
polluted industrial effluent. It has badly affected the soil and vegetation in
and around the pollution source.
The overall condition of the sewerage system is
unsatisfactory. At some places the sewer lines are choked due to poor
maintenance by the municipality. The staff to remove the sludge from the open
drain is not enough and there is no permanent check on the efficiency of the
staff. They throw the sludge on the roadsides, which is not removed form there
for many days. The reason being that there is not enough equipment and vehicles
for removing the sludge from these streets. Usually removal of sludge from
these open drains is done when either some important person or delegation is
expected to visit the city or there is strict order from the deputy
commissioner/mayor (administrator of municipal committee) of the city to do so.
The overall situation is very poor and adds to the degrading and unhealthy
environment in the city.
Solid Waste Disposal
The refuse collection and disposal by the municipal
committee is adversely poor in the city. The problems that are related with
disposal of solid waste (both domestic and industrial) are administrative and
technical. There was found a gap between the regulation and its implementation
for making the city clean. These regulations are very clearly mentioned in the
legal document of the municipality known as Punjab Local Government Ordinance
(PLGO-1979) but it was not in proper functioning. There is no enough staff to
manage this disposal system. Many of lower staff does not perform their duty
and there is no regular check on their working. These workers engaged in the
disposal of solid waste from the industrial area are heavily exposed to the
hazardous waste mixed with risky chemical. On the other hand, there is not a
single site declared by the municipal committee as appropriate dumping site.
These drawbacks of the municipal committee need to recover urgently.
The municipal committee is equipped with only five
tractor trolleys and 35 animal driven (donkey carts). The equipment and staff
available in the municipal committee for solid waste disposal works in the city
is shown in the following table. The total of 335 persons is engaged in
municipal committee office for this works.
Equipment
and staff available in Kasur Municipality for sold waste disposal in Kasur
|
Sr. No. |
Equipments available |
Staff |
|
|
1 |
Tractors |
5 |
40 |
|
2 |
Donkey Carts |
35 |
295 |
|
Total |
40 |
335 |
|
|
Source: Housing and Physical Planning Department, Punjab 1997 |
|||
The quantities of waste generated in the city is
approximately 300 tons per day, out of which 100 tons is collected and disposed
off in and around rohi nullah at
different points namely Shabaz road, Rod Kot,
Feroze pur road, Kasur-Depalpur road, around tannery ponds and near Naz cinema. The non-availability of
declared disposal sites by the municipality is one of the major causes of
uncontrolled open dumping of hazardous waste.