Rawalpindi still not free from heaps of garbage, stinking puddles

Rawalpindi

Heaps of garbage, rubbish dumps and unnecessary water accumulations that can be witnessed in a number of localities and particularly along rail tracks in town can turn out to be potential cause of outbreak of serious infectious diseases including dengue fever and malaria.

Not only in streets of congested areas in city but also along a number of link roads particularly in areas falling under jurisdiction of cantonment boards, one can witness number of points being served as garbage dumps in open. The waste management authorities do not collect garbage on daily basis from these points.

It seems as no one is responsible for clearing rubbish dumps from sites along rail tracks particularly from Marreer Chowk to Chaklala Railway Station. The heaps of garbage and feces along rail tracks may cause spread of a number of serious infections including typhoid, cholera, dysentery and malaria.

Rawalpindi Waste Management Company has established a proper waste management system but only in city areas while many congested areas of the town including streets in Dhoke Elahi Bux, Dhoke Khabba and areas along Raja Bazaar could not be cleared of rubbish dumps and garbage.

Many health experts have repeatedly expressed to ‘The News’ that vectors for infectious diseases including mosquitoes and flies know no boundaries and can move from one vicinity to the other and to avoid outbreak of infectious diseases, it is a must to clear the whole town from potential breeding sites of the vectors.

It is important that the population in this region of the country has faced the most severe outbreak of dengue fever last year, in 2015 and after that the city district government, district health department and the district allied departments have been holding meetings on meetings to review and discuss measures to ensure clean environment in the district however, the town could not be cleared from garbage dumps and unnecessary water accumulations so far.

Within next few weeks, the temperature in this region of the country would go up and would be highly suitable for breeding of mosquitoes and flies and if the concerned authorities fail in cleaning all localities in Rawal Town, Potohar Town and areas in cantonment boards, the population would be at risk of facing severe infections, said a top official at allied hospitals while talking to ‘The News’ on Saturday pleading anonymity.

Tehsil Municipal Officer at Rawal Town Mir Akram, when contacted by ‘The News’, said his office has nothing to do with removal of any sort of rubbish dumps and heaps of garbage in town and it is sole responsibility of Rawalpindi Waste Management Company to remove these.

‘The News’ tried to contact Managing Director at RWMC Irfan Qureshi repeatedly and sent a message on his mobile phone for his comments about the existing rubbish dumps but he did not make himself available.