The Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister on Environment and Alternate Energy, Mohammad Noman Saigal, has taken a strong note of garbage dumping along the beaches in Ibrahim Haidri, Korangi creek. He found that the garbage coming from various towns of the city is being dumped over a large area of the sea side and is set on fire by the people, who make money by collecting metal pieces for sale when this domestic solid waste is burnt to ashes.
This business was being run by some influential in a very organised manner for the last couple of years without any visible check, said the advisor, adding it has created marine pollution as high tides carried with them this refuse over vast area of the sea.
He said another serious problem was the air pollution created by regular burning of the huge quantity of solid waste. Around 20,000 people living in the vicinity were the main victims, the locals told the advisor.
The advisor, who drove to the site to confirm press reports about this alarming situation, was accompanied by senior officers of Sindh Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and the media team.
Saigal asked EPA Director General Shafique Ahmed Khoso to send a letter to City Nazim Naimatullah Khan suggesting him to issue instructions to stop the dumping of garbage along beaches and divert it to some designated dumping grounds.
The CM's advisor was told that this garbage also came from distant areas of the city like Saddar Town, Jamshed Town, and Lyari Town.
It is to be mentioned here that there were only two designated garbage dumping sites - one at Surjani and other Jam Chakro near the National Highway.
Saigal told the media that $30 million aid from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for coastal development was blocked only due to such illegal dumping and organised encroachments along the beaches. He said if beaches are not cleared and once noticed by those, who import seafood from Pakistan they would never turn it for the commodity.
He said he would bring this issue to the notice of the Sindh governor and the chief minister to seek their support in this regard. "The Sindh governor had ordered cleaning of the city, including picking up of the solid waste, but this did not meant that it should be dumped in this way", the advisor remarked.