SOLID WASTE

MANAGEMENT LAWS IN
PAKISTAN
submitted to: sir Adnan khan

submitted by:

Sunena sultan (01-161161-134)

Faiza Arshad (01-161161-068)

BS-ES(8)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….2

2 PRESENT STIUATION OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT………………………………………………………….3

3 GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN AGENDA……………………………………………………………………………………5

4 POVERITY REDUCTION STRATEGY……………………………………………………………………………………………6

5 EXISTING LEGAL FRAMEWORK………………………………………………………………………………………………….6,7

6 RECOMMENDATIONS………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7,8

7 CONCLUSIONS………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………8
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SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT LAWS IN

PAKISTAN
INTRODUCTION:

Pakistan like other developing countries faces serious environmental problems rapid population
growth (average growth rate of 2.61% a year) and impressive GDP growth (of about 6% a year)
have put enormous pressure on country average resource base and have significantly increased
level of pollution.

Solid waste means any garbage, sludge from a waste water treatment plant or air pollution
control facility and other discarded materials including solid, liquid, semi-solid or contained
gaseous material, resulting from industrial, agricultural, commercial and mining operations and
from community activities. Solid waste includes the following material when discarded

 Waste tires
 Scrap metal
 Oil and anti-freeze
 Empty aerosols cans

A material is disposed of if it is discharge, deposited, injected, dumped, spilled, leaked or placed

into or on any land or water so that such material or any constituent may enter the
environment or be emitted into the air or discharge into ground water or surface water. The
poor communities residing in urban settlements are often engage in number of initiative on
self-help basis e.g. solid waste management and recycling. Almost all the paper plastic and glass
are collected and reused or recycled. The only waste which remain on street and collection
point is organic waste. This could be used for making compost but neither the municipalities
nor private sectors have moved towards full utilization of this business.1

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http://osp.mans.edu.eg/environmental/ch6f.htm
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PRESENT SITUATION OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT IN PAKISTAN

Pakistan did not address the issue of issue of sustainable development and environmental
protection in national decision making process un-regulated use of forest, land, water and
urbanization and expansion of agriculture but not attempting to increase the crop yield.

Solid waste collection by government owned and operated services in Pakistan’s cities currently
averages only 50% of waste quantities generated for cities to be relatively clean 75% of these
quantities should be collected to achieve this level, a large capital investment is required. The
increased quantity of waste also placed greater demand on disposal services, since present
methods of disposal of solid waste are totally inadequate. Disposal is by open dumping
primarily on flood plains and into ponds, causing significant environmental damage.

Unfortunately, none of cities in Pakistan has a proper solid waste management system right
from the collection of solid waste up to its proper disposal. Much of the uncollected waste
poses serious risk to public health through clogging of drain, formation stagnant ponds and
providing breeding ground for mosquitoes and flies with consequent risk of malaria and
cholera. In addition, because of lack of adequate disposal sites, much of the collected waste
find its way in dumping grounds, open pits, ponds, rivers, and agricultural land. Environmental
degradation is not only well advanced already, but also getting progressively worse as the
country’s population, urbanization and industrialization increase, and as its economy develops
generally.

 SOLID WASTE IN PAKISTAN

Presently domestic solid waste in Pakistan has not been carried out in a sufficient and
proper manner in collection, transportation, disposal or dumping regardless of the size
of the city there for the environment and sanitary conditions become more serious year
by year and people are suffering from living such conditions.
The scope of problem regarding solid waste management is very wide and involve the
consideration of all the aspects related to solid waste and its management either
directly or indirectly
 POPULATION AND HOUSE HOLD ESTIMATES

The number and growth of population and households is the foremost factor affecting the
solid waste and its management at various stages. According to a study “Data collection of
national study on privatization of solid waste management in eight cities of Pakistan”
conducted by Engineering and Planning and Management Consultant the selected cities are
growing at a growth rate from 3.67% to 7.42% which is much higher than overall growth
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rate of Pakistan. 2.8% major cities of them are estimated to double their growth rate in next
ten years. These cities are generating high amount of solid waste which is increasing
annually with the respective population growth.

 WASTE GENERATION ESTIMATES

The rate of waste generation on average from all type of municipal controlled areas varies
from 0.283kg\capita\day to 0.613kg\capita\day or from 1.896kg\house\day to 4.29kg\
house\day in all the selected cities (Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Karachi, Hyderabad, Peshawar,
Bannu, Quetta and Sibi). It shows a particular trend of waste generation wherein increase
has been recorded in accordance with city’s population beside its social and economic
development.

 WASTE COLLECTION ESTIMATES

In Pakistan solid waste is mainly collected by municipalities and waste collection
efficiencies range from 0% in low income rural areas to 90% in high income areas of
large cities. The proportion of waste collection is much less in many other areas of
country.
At present there is no landfill regulations and standards that provide a basis for
compliance and monitoring but national guidelines for these standards are being
prepared by the consultant under NEAP SP.
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There is a need that government of Pakistan should put forward a clearly opted policy
of waste recovery.
 POTENTIAL FOR WASTE RECYCLING
Under the present system the municipalities are not carrying out any type of recycling
activity. What happens normally is that main recyclable items like paper plastic glass and
metal are retained by the people themselves which are later sold to street
hawkers/waste dealers for recycling.

WORK CARRIED OUT UNDER PERTINENT PREVIOUS AND ON

GOING INITIATIVE
The planning and development division at the federal level and planning and development
department at the provincial level are responsible for the preparation of development plans
and allocation of resources. At the federal level the ministry of environment, local government
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Guidelines for solid waste management
EPMC estimates
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and rural development are responsible for the development of policies and programmes under
the environment theme, the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (PEPA) and the provincial
EPA’s are the main regulatory bodies for environmental monitoring. Overall planning included
planning for poverty reduction is the responsibility of the planning commission at the federal
level. The concerned lined departments such as agriculture, water, health, education,
municipalities etc. are responsible for implementation. The present poverty reduction strategy
views poverty in more holistic manner. And several line departments are involved in its
implementation.

GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN’S 7 PONT AGENDA

To address institutional crises, the government elaborated 7-point agenda which is as follows

 Rebuild national confidence and morale

 Strengthen the federation remove interprovincial disharmony.
 Revive economy and restore investor confidence
 Ensure law and order and dispense speedy justice
 De-politicize state institutions
 Devolution of power grassroots level.3
 Ensure swift and across the board accountability.
The government of Pakistan has announced strategy for the reconstruction of local
government that not only addresses the agenda point on ‘Devolution of Power and
Responsibility’ to the grassroots levels but also the rest of the six points as the
reconstruction process applies a bottom up approach it includes the following key
elements
 Devolution of power for the general empowerment of citizens
 Decentralization of administrative authority
 Decentralization of professional functions.
 Diffusion of power for checks and balances to preclude autocracy
 Distribution of resources to the provincial and local level.
POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY, NEAP AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
(DEVOLUTION) PLANE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY POLICY

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Guidelines for solid waste management
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The actions and measures outlined in these documents form the main element of the
national programme to address the issue related to poverty environment nexus.
 Poverty reduction strategy (PRS)
 National Environmental Action Plane (NEAP)
More recently the government has taken the concrete steps to implement the
devolution of power plan and information technology policy. Both these initiative
provide necessary impetus to translate the actions and measures proposed in the above
referred documents into reality thus paving the way to achieve the goal of sustainable
environmental management.
The NEAP is implementing actions and measures through the following major sub
programmes.
 The clean air programme that will primarily focus on controlling of vehicular pollution,
emission from industries, and indoor air pollution in rural areas.
 The clean water programme that will target protecting water quality from domestic and
municipal effluents, industrial effluents, and pesticides and fertilizers.
 The solid waste management programme that will aim at mobilizing communities for
adopting the 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle) principle of waste management.
 The ecosystem management programme that will initially focus on small number of
representative ecosystems where management initiative can be tested.
 The other areas of concern included in the NEAP are management of fresh water
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resources, marine pollution, toxic and hazardous substances, energy conservation and
management and compliance with international treaties and protocol.
EXISTING LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
The government of Pakistan enacted the Pakistan environmental protection act (PEPA)
in 1997 which is the most recent and updated legislation in environment. It provides a
framework for establishing federal and provincial Environmental Protection Agencies
(EPA’S) and suggestions for protection and conversation of species, habitat and
biodiversity and conservation of renewable resources. The ministry will continue to take
initiative in collaboration with Pakistan Environmental Protection Council (PEPC) and
provincial EPA’S to adjust the PEPA and NEAP to match up with the changing realities on
the ground with in the ministry there is also a NCS unit that is responsible for promoting
and monitoring progress of NCS implementation as a follow-up to these initiatives, it is
likely that decrees will continue to be prepared and issued in the near future to further
improve the state of environment and regulate the natural recourses utilization and
pricing.

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http://environment.gov.pk/images/provincialsepasguidelines/SWMGLinesDraft.pdf
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The main issues are

 Inadequate primary legislation for national decision.
 Possible need for new ordinances for government of Pakistan’s decisions.
 Lack of monitoring and control.
 Strengthening health and safety legislation to protect all sectors of society.
Presently these legal rules and regulations are dealing with solid waste
management in Pakistan are as follows.
 Section 11 of Pakistan Environmental Protection Act prohibits discharge of waste in an
amount or concentration that violates the NEQS unfortunately, presently we do not
have a set of NEQ’S specific to the solid waste.
 Hazardous substance rule of 1999
 Islamabad Capital Territory Bye Laws 1968 by capital development authority Islamabad.
 Section 132 of the cantonment Act 1924 deals with Deposits and disposal of rubbish etc.
deals with solid waste management by Jhelum cantonment board.
The present legal rule and regulations are inadequate and outdated there is an urgent need
that solid waste management law should legislate. The makes clearly to any activities
concerned this waste management that what part should citizen, enterprise, government
should take of responsibilities. Factories or companies should treat especially industrial
hazardous waste which generated these under governmental control. Citizen, businessman,
factory owner and even government should receive a punishment for activity in the violation of
law of solid waste management.

RECOMMENDATIONS
 Collect review and update baseline data on solid waste management.
 Collect and develop baseline information on solid waste management of hospitals,
industries, and agricultural activities.
 Review various options for solid waste management and involvement of private sector.
 Recommend a viable alternative for private sector participation in solid waste
management.
In order to exchange information a network should be established to share information
about solid waste management in Pakistan to link federal and provincial governments
EPA’S, universities, private sectors, industries and communities.

CONCLUSION:
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The main challenges in developing cities are incompliance of managing and handling
rules, negligence of the management body, local residents, irregular waste collection
and improper checking of dumping sites. There is a limited focus on control mechanism
which is adversely affecting on safety, health and the environment. Regulations are
inadequately enforced and SWM does not seem to be priority. None of the cities have
integrated solid waste management system. The public should be involved and
informed about any proposed changes to SWM practices relatively early in the plaining
stages so their ideas can be taken into account in order to finalizing the programme.
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Guidelines for solid waste management