Solving plastic pollution

Islamabad

The shopping bags and other types of plastics create so munch nuisance, commotion and pollution that all and sundry the issue cannot be over-emphasised. We all are well aware of this but everybody uses shopping bags under law of necessity.

Just like 30-day Broiler chicken which gains weight of 1.5 to 2 kg by use of steroids, hormones and poultry garbage. Or like acid-treated ginger. Bring ‘desi murghi’ and see response of your wife and the kids. They don’t like nutritious, delicious ‘desi’ chicken and prefer medicine filled broilers awareness or no awareness.

Same is the case with plastics. Plastic products mostly can be recycled but are thrown into open to go “jahan qismat le jaye.” Sometimes shopping bags of different colours trapped in a tree, especially those with thorns, depict a scenario of a Pir Sahib Mazar.

An island thus created at Korang Nullah is near Burma Bridge at Khanna. When there could be islands of coral, volcanoes, why not of plastics.

And a surface created by floating plastic on a nearby location seen in the photograph may be called as Plastic Plain like our Deosai Plain which is habitat to at least 200 varieties of flowers found nowhere in the rest of the world.

No beauty or beautiful creatures here.

You can see crows quenching their thirst sitting over this floating mass of plastic of all types, shapes and colours. Sparrows, cranes, mynahs and some fish hunting birds also grace this place with their visits. They are in search of left-over food which they can find in shopping bags, cans, boxes and packs of used products. Some insects and small animals in the quest in turn are preyed upon by larger birds and predators like turtles and vertebra very close to lizards but much bigger in size. And boys of the locality endanger their lives in attempts to hunt turtles. Thank God, there is no tragedy yet.

The lack of rain stopped the flow of water from Rawal Dam spillovers and this standstill agreement between nature and CDA (or is it Irrigation Department of Punjab government which looks after the Dam). The stagnant water produces such a pungent smell that the people living on either side of its course, which included schools and a college, also, have to cover their noses.

This will persist till Monsoon when rains will wipe it away to its natural destination, ie, Nullah Sohan, then Dhoke Pathanan and finally to River Indus, just 4 kilometres short of unfortunate site of Kalabagh Dam.

I don’t know what solution CDA possesses to check this annual nuisance. Can it convince half-educated residents not to throw garbage in nullahs?

Quaid-i-University, the abode to educated class, conducted a successful 1-day cleanliness exercise involving all students, faculty and staff when Dr Eatzaz Ahmad was the vice-chancellor.

Fair enough. But after two weeks, one could see plastic roaming around and hoisted over trees and plants freely as before.

Can advocacy, awareness and knowledge are sufficient? I think not. We only act when heat reaches us. And then it becomes too late. Isn’t it the case?