Combating rising tide of plastic waste

Rawalpindi city has been flooded many times over the last two decades. The main reason for the flooding was cited to be the indiscriminate use of plastic bags.

Manufacturers promptly pass increase in packaging costs onto the unaware customers. And it’s double whammy for them as not only does the flooding continue, but we now have to bear the increase as well.

“RWMC workers work as frontline troops in the battle against a rising tide of plastic waste in the city. But the city's insatiable appetite for plastic bags, combined with a poor track record of civic sense among its residents, severely hampers their efforts, especially during the monsoon months,” says Jafar Hussain from Faisal Colony.

“How long will this throbbing city have to fight off floods in its streets? Nobody knows, for sure. Plastic has become a major scourge for the city, clogging vital roads during the seasonal downpours and regularly turning major thoroughfares and service roads into muddy rivers,” says Saira Batool from Gulzar-e-Quaid.

“Every other day city workers descend into city’s bowels to try and clear some of the trash thrown into them by the insensitive citizens. My surrounding localities like Shah Khalid Colony, Tajabad, Fazal Town Phase-1suffer from the same disease,” says Yasir Abbas from Dhoke Hafiz.

“I have seen them lifting a large concrete slab leading to the drainage channel below, scattering an army of cockroaches. Sliding into the filthy water, they use buckets to haul sludge blocking the drainage pipes,” says Eqbal Mehdi from Dhoke Matkaal.