The Hunza Environmental Committee (HEC) was formed in December 1997 as a project of KADO.It is a community response to the civic needs of the growing tourist and business towns in central Hunza, where in the absence of any municipal agency, the issue of solid waste disposal was getting worst day-by-day and there was no mechanism to arrest the situation and manage the problem.  

After initial funding support for start-up costs by AKF-UK/EU and NORAD through AKCSP, and mobilization of local resources to create an endowment fund, the project now sustains operations through user-fees and utilizes local resources and collaborates with local institutions for awareness raising programmes, independent of any external donor support.

HEC executes the first and only community-based municipal service in the country. Its approach to solid waste management is distinctive in that it has used an innovative approach by linking local voluntarism and technical capacity of a local NGO with the social responsibility of the private sector while keeping close coordination & linkages with the local administration/government.  

Almost 90 % of the clients are from the business community; shopkeepers, traders, cabins, hotels, restaurants, barbershops, auto workshops etc. Other clients include; Institutional/organizational clients like hospitals, offices, Schools, Colleges, Banks, Mosques/Community Centers etc. and a small number of individual households near the roadsides are also users. Total number of users is around 600 and 85% of them pay their user fee regularly.

The total waste daily generated in central Hunza has been estimated to be around 3,293 kg. It is estimated that HEC handles 50% of the total waste generated in the area and the remaining 50 % of the solid waste is dumped into the rivers, streams, water courses and in the backyards posing grave threat to both human and animal health.




By: shahid