Preps begin for Eidul Azha cleanliness drive

The Rawalpindi Waste Management Company and cantonment boards have started preparations for a cleanliness plan to dispose of sacrificial animal waste during Eidul Azha next month. RWMC and the cantonment boards of Rawalpindi and Chaklala have issued tenders to hire machinery from the open market and private sector, including Qingqi rickshaws, Suzuki vehicles and handcarts, to access narrow streets and collect waste from homes and neighbourhoods for three days. Details have been sought from private owners by April 20 for hiring machinery, Qingqi rickshaws, Suzuki vehicles and carts. Services of 3,000 temporary workers will also be acquired for 72 hours to collect and dispose of animal waste from homes, and they will be paid a fixed honorarium for the three days, while regular sanitary workers' three-day leave will be cancelled and they will also receive an additional honorarium along with their salaries. Under the cleanliness plan, large plastic bags will be distributed at the union council level to all citizens slaughtering animals, with instructions that they place animal waste in these official bags outside their homes, from where sanitary workers will collect it for disposal. Sanitary workers will make three rounds daily in small vehicles in streets and neighbourhoods to collect waste. These small vehicles and carts will transport the waste to temporary dumping areas established on main roads in each union council, from where larger vehicles will continuously shift it to the Losar central landfill outside the city for disposal.