Karachi’s unmitigated lack of cleanliness

Karachi
One finds it real hard to believe that today’s Karachi is the same as the one 30 years ago where the roads were spotlessly clean and were washed daily at the end of the day, or is the same city which, in the British era was one of the subcontinent’s two cleanest cities, the other one being Bangalore. The present generation of young people would be simply amused were they to be told that Karachi was once referred to as the gateway to the West.
This would be an absolute fairy tale to a member of today’s young generation, who just know the city as a massive filth dump.
Filth dump? Yes, that is what the city has turned into over the last two decades with the abruptly burgeoning population resulting from the influx from a civil war-torn neighbouring country, having begun in April 1984. The city, with its confined infrastructure just could not afford to be swamped by such a large, initiated population.
Since then the city has witnessed an abrupt downswing, be it law and order, or upkeep. Prior to that, one could traverse the thoroughfares of Karachi with least danger of being accosted by muggers or target killers. Then came the proliferation of arms and things changed for the reverse — and the worse.
However, not only that but even the upkeep has gone by default. Just one example: hit Karam Ali Talpur Road in Saddar from the Lucky Star Hotel end. One has to block his nostrils to escape the stomach-wrenching odours emanating from the mountain of garbage littering the road. Refuse is dumped in the most callous of manner, constricting the road to almost a third of its breadth.
Ironically enough this area is home to clinics of private practitioners, something that requires a totally germ-free environment.
The doctor at one of these clinics told this correspondent that every month he received a large number of patients from the vicinity suffering from respiratory ailments.
Elsewhere in Saddar, sewage which has spilt on to the roads through which pedestrians have to wade is a common sight.
It is not uncommon to see some of the well-known hospitals in the vicinity with hospital waste lying just outside the boundary walls.
Elsewhere one sees uncovered garbage trucks laden with refuse with bits of it flying all over the place.
Further south, just take a jaunt to the Clifton beach and one sees sewage trucks releasing their nauseating cargo to meander its way into the sea. Those responsible for the city’s maintenance just do not seem to realise that the beaches are teeming in fish, the best source of protein and human diet, but with this germ-riddled sludge, we are just destroying this invaluable source of nutrition. The most unhappy part of it is that those responsible seem to be least pushed.