Karachi: Financial hub or garbage city?

KARACHI:

The images that flash before the eyes of a Karachiite are usually a mountain of garbage, instead of a landscape of tall buildings and clean roads. The metropolis that is the financial center of the country has a mark, a mark that distinguishes it from other metropolises of the world, an immense amount of garbage.

The question is what causes the enormous amount of waste that is thrown away every day. Why does it end up on the streets or, even worse, in the sewer? And how can we tackle this enormous task?

The answer is not as complicated as you might think, it is rather simple, you need to control your urge to throw the trash out of your car or apartment window. In a recent study, a staggering figure of 16,500 tons of waste was recorded per day by the government statistics posted on the website of Pakistan Waste Management International Trade Administration, if you were to multiply it by 30, the figure would come to 495,000 tons of waste per month, which is an alarming figure. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the current population of Karachi is 20,382,881 as per the census conducted in 2023, making it one of the most populated urban cities in the world. The estimated growth rate is 2.46 percent, which is a dangerously high figure. The city is overburdened. The institutions are working on solving the waste problem every year, but given the enormous growth and rural-urban migration, the exact figures are impossible to ascertain.

With such a large number of people also comes a large volume of waste, and what people sometimes do not understand is that institutions have limited resources, it can only serve to collect waste once or twice a day, a disproportionate number if you look at the waste that is thrown away on average every half hour a day. This problem is seen everywhere in the city, what you expect is a bit of civic sense among the more educated group, but it is rarely put into practice, because you see plastic bags thrown out of car windows, motorbikes or households themselves, the waste then collects where the wind takes it.

It could be a high income area like DHA but you can’t stop the wind. In the case of this community there are slums on the outskirts where the residents of those areas regularly dump their waste. The wind carries the waste in every direction it flows, which perpetuates the problem. The waste eventually clogs the drains or ends up in the sea.

In just one month, 8,000 tons of solid waste was collected from DHA and CBC, including construction waste, adding to the problem of waste management. One wonders how the rest of the metropolis would fare with so much waste being collected from DHA. It is important to note that DHA has been conducting clean-up campaigns throughout the year.

If you were to compare another city to a megacity where so many people live or work, it would be Bangkok, the financial center of Thailand, which boasts thousands of tourists who also visit the picturesque city. Despite being in the tropical monsoon season, waste management is not a problem, as locals do not throw away any trash and tourists are not allowed to do so either. Civic awareness is instilled at an early age, with children encouraged to throw their trash in designated areas. Hong Kong and Tokyo are other examples, Kuala Lumpur, also a metropolis, does not have this problem. The most important thing to note as a common denominator is an inbuilt civic awareness and the threat of fines, which are imposed if someone is found to be in violation.

While institutions worldwide are responsible for waste management, it is important to realize your own responsibility, not to pollute the city. Use designated areas to dump the waste, so that the citizens can enjoy a breath of fresh air and clean streets, we must also hold ourselves responsible, whether we contribute to the solution or are part of the problem.