Safe city cameras will now be watching waste & cleanliness in Lahore

The Punjab government has instructed local waste management bodies to work with the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) for real-time tracking of sanitation activities in Lahore.

The goal is to quickly detect garbage piles, unclean areas, and other violations. All waste management companies, including the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), have been told by the Secretary of Local Government to assign special staff to the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) control center. These workers will watch live camera footage to monitor cleaning work and report areas that are being ignored.

This effort continues an earlier agreement between PSCA and LWMC to use digital tools for better waste management. With this system, authorities can easily catch illegal dumping, delays in waste pickup, and failure to follow cleaning schedules. Safe City cameras were already used during busy times like Eid al-Adha to check on garbage collection, animal waste removal, and illegal use of public spaces. During the recent Eid cleaning drive, more than 3.2 million biodegradable bags were given out, and canal areas were monitored for cleanliness.

Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif herself viewed the cleaning work through the live camera feeds and said that this kind of camera monitoring will be helpful for future sanitation operations too. The Safe Cities system, which was first built for security and traffic control, is now also being used for city cleanliness and public service checks. It is already working in 19 districts, and the plan is to install 5000 cameras across Punjab by mid-2025. This move shows how modern technology is being used to make cities cleaner and better managed.