Karachi
A Lost city
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| Photo: Imran Bari |
Karachi is known as a city of lights. Karachi is famous for its nightlife. It's a city that never sleeps. But nowadays that beautiful city has lost under heaps of garbage. Despite being Pakistan's largest city & economic hub, Karachi currently looks like a large garbage dump or "trash bin", with miserable infrastructure and broken rough roads full of stagnate sewerage water.
Heaps of garbage and slimy mud are scattered on the roads, there are no arrangements made to clear them out. The gutters filled up with waste materials and trash, so bad odour is everywhere in the city's atmosphere.
According to some senior citizens, decades ago the city roads would be washed by the municipal authorities. And nowadays people can't walk on roads or footpaths because of heaps of garbage. The garbage problem is not only a main cause of increasing pollution but also affecting Karachi city's natural environment and health of people. Many diseases are spreading among people of Karachi just because of waste products, chemicals and garbage.
Garbage sold and burnt as a fuel. People from lower socio-economic class search these heaps of garbage for material that can be recycled. It has adverse effects on their health and life. Use of garbage as fuel produces air pollution. Nonetheless, it also cause many diseases such as cancer, lungs diseases and also cause eye infection etc.
Karachi is facing most worst situation of increasing garbage heaps and stagnate sewerage water, mostly in the middle and lower income areas. In streets sewerage pipelines are poorly kept in most places. Water pipelines and gutters leak in many areas, mixing clean water with sewerage water.
Unfortunately people are adapting with such worst conditions because it has been a long time, government is not taking it serious, nor planning to take some solid actions to get rid of the worst garbage situation.
We can see the sewerage and rain water drainage system is completely clogged or blocked with trash plastics, commercial and industrial wastes. Even several areas don't have proper facilities for the collection and lifting of garbage, that result in unsanitary conditions, can be seen all over Karachi city except the posh areas.
City's two largest political parties Pakistan People's Party(PPP ) which presides over the provincial government in Sindh and Mutahida Qomi Movement (MQM) but both of these parties, kept themselves busy in blaming each other for political gains, instead of the own the problems of the largest city of Pakistan.
There is a war like situation between Sindh and City governments regarding garbage problem. Heaps of garbage can be seen on the streets and even on the main arteries of the city. But the authorities are not paying any attention .
The government of Sindh should take rapid action and necessary reforms to improve the condition of environmental affairs of Karachi city. If the prevailing practices and actions continue Karachi will be a neat and clean city of lights again.
Written by:Nuzhat Aman
Written by:Nuzhat Aman
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| Photos: Imran Bari |
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By: Imran |
ReplyDeletegreat
It's nice portrayal of a city/ metropolis of any developing nation in this phase of time , unfortunately we walk through. As most of the developing states are not social welfare states. the issues like..huge surge of population..poor health..and socio-economic condition, the tilted equilibrium of the carrying capacity of any space in a particular time do not pinch the socio-political establishments as city dwellers or the inhabitats..jus being recognized recognized by certain numbers. As long as there is no socio-economic recognition / acceptance that human communities / populations in any fragile social ecosystem could not flourish or give their best efforts to make their nation unique unless a composite agenda for better governance (coordinated by nation and international socio economic policymakers) would be there as such trait is inevitable of any social welfare state.
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