Citizens have taken strong exception to the Sindh Waste Management Board's (SWMB) practice of placing garbage bins on thoroughfares in Karachi. Talking to the APP they said the presence of bins on major roads is not only hindering traffic flow but also posing serious health hazard for the public. "This is nothing unusual in our context to find the garbage and waste littered around the bin and rarely thrown into it," said Mohammad Aqil, a senior citizen and resident of Saddar.
Situation has turned from bad to worse since the recent showers as nobody seems to be taking the responsibility of proper removal of garbage, mainly domestic waste, hence making worse the plight of the passersby. It was lamented that the placement of trash drums by the SWMB in different parts of the metropolis has emerged to be an issue of disputed responsibility and not shared responsibility.
Visit to different areas of Karachi reveals that garbage is mostly littered on the sides of thoroughfares, immersed in rainwater and emanating unbearable stench has made the lives of people in general all the more difficult. A senior DMC South official acknowledged that close coordination is required among relevant civic agencies and alleged that the SWMB despite being delegated authority and provided with funds by the provincial government is not able to deliver.
SWMB authorities rubbished the allegation and claimed that bins have been placed at sites that could be easily approached by the citizens while private contractors assigned the responsibility are also duly collecting and transporting the garbage to designated land-fill site.
They, however, claimed that citizens are themselves responsible for the situation as they do not throw waste inside bins and thus exposing entire communities to difficult situation. "There is lack of education and media can play its role in bringing about needed change in public approach towards hygiene and cleanliness," they said in reply to a question. Sajda Iqbal, a resident of PECHS, suggested that bins needed to be shifted from thoroughfares to corners of broad lanes in every locality as these could then be easily approached even by women.
"Presently it is difficult for many of the men as well as women to carry domestic waste to main roads, not very close to our homes," she said. Sajda Iqbal, a teacher by profession, said that there exists no system under which civic agencies may have developed system to collect domestic waste from door steps.
"We hire private individuals for the job who then carry it to bins in accordance to their will and whim," she elaborated. Expressing inability of residents to keep an eye on those paid by them to collect garbage, she said that had these bins been placed at one or other end of their residential lanes, it could have helped many people to ensure that waste may not clutter around and is also properly disposed of.
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