| The Hunza Environmental Committee (HEC) was | | | | technical capacity of a local NGO with the social |
| formed in December 1997 as a project of KADO.It is | | | | responsibility of the private sector while keeping close |
| a community response to the civic needs of the | | | | coordination & linkages with the local |
| growing tourist and business towns in central Hunza, | | | | administration/government. |
| where in the absence of any municipal agency, the | | | | Almost 90 % of the clients are from the business |
| issue of solid waste disposal was getting worst | | | | community; shopkeepers, traders, cabins, hotels, |
| day-by-day and there was no mechanism to arrest | | | | restaurants, barbershops, auto workshops etc. Other |
| the situation and manage the problem. | | | | clients include; Institutional/organizational clients like |
| After initial funding support for start-up costs by | | | | hospitals, offices, Schools, Colleges, Banks, Mosques |
| AKF-UK/EU and NORAD through AKCSP, and | | | | Community Centers etc. and a small number of |
| mobilization of local resources to create an | | | | individual households near the roadsides are also |
| endowment fund, the project now sustains | | | | users. Total number of users is around 600 and 85% |
| operations through user-fees and utilizes local | | | | of them pay their user fee regularly. |
| resources and collaborates with local institutions for | | | | The total waste daily generated in central Hunza has |
| awareness raising programmes, independent of any | | | | been estimated to be around 3,293 kg. It is |
| external donor support. | | | | estimated that HEC handles 50% of the total waste |
| HEC executes the first and only community-based | | | | generated in the area and the remaining 50 % of the |
| municipal service in the country. Its approach to solid | | | | solid waste is dumped into the rivers, streams, water |
| waste management is distinctive in that it has used | | | | courses and in the backyards posing grave threat to |
| an innovative approach by linking local voluntarism and | | | | both human and animal health. |