Karachi aka City of Lights Drowned in Tons of Solid Waste

Karachi largest Metropolitan of Pakistan famously known as City of Lights is also the Ex-Capital of state of Pakistan. Karachi’s is destined to face problems after problems first long period of ethnic clashes between URDU speaking and other Karachite’s followed by a long period of terrorism and gang wars and from the past 10 years it is facing the consequences of mismanagement, overextension of city area, Over Population and unapologetically unplanned construction which leads to an increase in solid waste and cause climate change.

The main reason such a severe waste management problem is the drastic urbanization of Karachi. As Karachi is a financial, economic hub of Pakistan it attracts many migrants from all over the country which led to overpopulation. The government did not introduce a method to check the inflow of migrants into Karachi which caused most of these problems.

It is difficult to find a vast area or patch of clean land in Karachi. The waste is not only from domestic sources but also includes construction debris, industrial waste, plastic waste, and rotten waste all over Karachi. While the municipality of Karachi is mostly inactive in waste management due to a lack of attention and implementation by the Sindh Government. Another reason is the lack of power transfer at the local administrative level as most of the elected personal at Union Council Level has no real authority and a say in the administrative decision.

According to various estimates Karachi produces almost 12000 tons of waste on a daily basis from which 4000 tons end up in landfill sites and rest is found along with public places, roads, empty plots, and parks. This is causing severe contamination of water bodies and climate change.

It will not be an exaggeration if you call Karachi as a City of Garbage instead of City of Lights because it is hard to find clean patches of land in Karachi.

Sindh Assembly passed the Solid Waste Management Board Act in 2014 which was intended to enhance coordination and utilize outsider contractual workers to “assume control administration of strong waste for the benefit of the Board”. The administration control still lies with the Sindh government. The board issues tenders for specific occupations to temporary workers so as to deal with various types of waste crosswise over Karachi regions.

All the measure is taken till now are only on paper without any real implementation while Karachite’s are trying to Self Help themselves by taking matters into the hand with clean up campaigns lead by Fixit and other social workers. Twitter is also on the boom with trends to force the Sindh government to release funds demanded by Mayor Karachi.

Here is a hilarious attempt to motivate the Sindh Government by the Minister of National Assembly Alamgir Khan.

سندھ حکومت کی نہ اہلی کی وجہ سے کراچی شہر کی سڑکوں پر سیلاب کا خطرہ۔#Fixit pic.twitter.com/7Ik1ravBlY

— Alamgir Khan (@AKFixit) July 5, 2020