“The largest waste management drive in South Asia will falter unless civic responsibility replaces the culture of normalising cesspools around”

The Punjab government’s Suthra Punjab programme under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif is being hailed as the largest cleanliness and waste management initiative in South Asia. It covers all 36 districts, manages 57,000 tonnes of waste every day, employs more than 150,000 sanitation workers, and operates a fleet of 28,000 vehicles and machines. It digitises service delivery through mobile apps, portals, and helplines, aiming to transform waste management into a modern, transparent system. In its ambition and scale, Suthra Punjab is unprecedented and deserves recognition as a landmark initiative.

Yet, despite its promise, the programme faces the same challenge that crippled earlier efforts such as the Lahore Waste Management Company. LWMC was focused on Lahore alone, outsourcing services to contractors and managing 6,000 to 7,000 tonnes of waste daily. It struggled with sustainability, infringements, and citizen apathy. The outsourcing model created dependency on contractors, while citizens continued to litter and dump waste without restraint. The lesson from LWMC is clear: machinery and manpower cannot keep streets clean if people continue producing filth without restraint and disposing of waste without sense. The government can clean, but only people can keep it clean.

The real obstacle lies in the habits of citizens. These habits are not incidental but systemic postulates that actively block progress. The first postulate is the normalisation of littering and spitting in public spaces. This act is performed with brazen disregard, spreading disease and eroding civic pride. The........

© The Friday Times