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Authorities continue turning a blind eye to garbage incineration around residential areas
By M. Waqar Bhatti
Karachi
A thick cloud of smoke and a stench of burning garbage greet motorists entering the Korangi Expressway and the causeway that leads to the Korangi Industrial Area. The foul atmosphere is a product of the illegal practice of throwing and burning hundreds of tonnes of garbage in an area that is surrounded by residential colonies of Qayyumabad and Akhtar Colony. This activity is being carried out with the consent of all civic and regulatory authorities, who have turned a blind eye towards this blatant violation of law.
Meanwhile, The News has learnt that the environment department of the Sindh government is also aware of the practice, as the Sindh Secretary for Environment reportedly travels on the Korangi Expressway and is perhaps aware that smoke from the smouldering garbage reduces visibility on the road, even in daylight.
When contacted by The News, provincial secretary environment, Mir Hussain Ali, who has also served as DCO Karachi in the recent past, admitted that the practice of dumping and burning garbage on the Malir riverbed was “illegal” but feels that in order to stop the act, identification of culprits should be the first step.
“There are a lot of agencies including towns, City District Government Karachi (CDGK) departments and cantonment boards active in the area, and I think it is the responsibility of the Works and Services Department of the CDGK to check and stop the illegal practice” he observed.
When asked why his department couldn’t take up the issue, as burning of hundreds of tonnes of garbage was also an environmental issue, he nodded in affirmation and stated that they could also take up the issue, and “tomorrow” they will look into it to ascertain “what can be done in this regard”.
City Nazim, Mustafa Kamal, said that the issue had been brought to his knowledge and he had issued directives accordingly. “If the practice is still continuing, it is unacceptable because something like this should not be happening in the first place,” he added.
The Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), which is another stakeholder in the issue, meanwhile claims that it is tired of making requests to authorities to stop this practice, adding that they have said that they are no longer concerned with the Korangi Expressway.
KATI President Fazl-e-Jalil added that they had approached “everybody” regarding this issue but the Town administration of Jamshed Town was unmoved and paid no heed to requests made by them and the residents of the area to stop dumping and burning their litter on the Malir riverbed. Mr Jalil said that he would make yet another attempt and write a letter to DCO Karachi and talk to Nazim Mustafa Kamal.
Jalil was also critical of Jamshed Town Nazim, Javed Ahmed, stating: “The Town Nazim is playing with the lives of people and he should immediately curb this illegal act. In the rainy season, this garbage would seep into our area as well as the sea, thereby polluting the seawater and endangering marine life,” he maintained. The Jamshed Town Nazim, Javed Ahmed, could not be approached for comment despite repeated attempts, while the town’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) said that only the Town Nazim could comment on the issue.
Nasarul Islam Usmani, an environmentalist who often travels on the Korangi Expressway to get to work, claims that in the evening, the smoke reduces visibility on the road to a large extent and also causes suffocation. “Thick clouds of smoke from litter burning and their odour can result in fatal accidents on this highway. It is an extremely dangerous practice on the part of the civic authorities and they would have to be blamed for any loss of life and health hazards,” he said.
Usmani, who holds an MSc in Environmental Science and working at a waste treatment plant in the Korangi Industrial Area, termed the burning of municipal waste in a densely-populated area as “the height of civic neglect and a crime against citizens.”
He added: “The smoke emitting from the burning of domestic and market waste normally produces CO2, CO, as well as poisonous gasses like dioxin and hydrogen cyanide, which are highly carcinogenic (cancer-causing substances).”
According to physicians, prolonged exposure to smoke from the domestic waste can result in serious damage to the respiratory tract as well as the central nervous system of human beings. They claim that inhaling smoke for a long period can result in the accumulation of carbon in the respiratory tract and lungs and could cause asthma, cancer and other fatal diseases, especially among children and the elderly. Source The News International