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Thursday March 28, 2024

Respiratory diseases on the rise as burning of garbage continues in city

By M. Waqar Bhatti
December 01, 2018

A sizeable amount of around 14,000 tons of garbage produced in Karachi is being burnt on a daily basis at the banks of two rivers, Lyari and Malir, as well as under dozens of flyovers and bridges, causing immense air pollution and resulting in serious health hazards for the citizens, experts said on Friday.

Several residential areas and roads constructed along the banks of Lyari and Malir rivers remain engulfed in thick black smoke billowing from burning garbage piles, making the lives of people miserable.

“Every Sunday, garbage dumped under Ayesha Manzil and Water Pump flyovers is set on fire, which results in immense problems for us as it makes breathing immensely difficult. For quite some time, we leave our home on Sunday morning before the burning of garbage starts and get back home in the night, but smoke is felt in the air for the next day also,” said Ahmed Ali, a resident of Federal B Area.

But Ahmed Ali is not alone in complaining about thick plumes of smoke their residential area as there are several localities from where many people have migrated to other places due to regular burning of garbage adjacent to their homes, which resulted in severe health issues for them and compelled them to relocate themselves to other places.

Nazimuddin, who once was a resident of Defence View near Korangi Causeway, recently moved to Gulistan-e-Jauhar’s Block-15 due to regular burning of garbage in the Lyari river.

“Hundreds of trucks and dumpers bring thousands of tons of garbage from the entire city and dump it in the Malir river on a daily basis. This garbage remains burning most of the time, making room for the dumping of more garbage, and this vicious cycle continues,” he said, adding that due to inhaling smoke, he and his entire family had caught irreversible respiratory diseases and now they were under treatment to get rid of the harms done to their lungs by the hazardous smoke.

Irreversible damage

Air pollution is not a new thing for Karachi due to its faulty transport system, but the burning of thousands of tons of garbage has worsened the environmental issue and now a number of patients affected by chronic respiratory issues, including upper respiratory tract infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, are on the rise, pulmonologists or chest specialists say.

“Unfortunately, air pollution is not being considered as an unhealthy, illegal or immoral activity, so people have accepted it willingly or unwillingly,” eminent pulmonologist Prof Sohail Akhtar said, adding that Karachi was now among the 20 most polluted cities of the world but nobody was really concerned about it.

He said that in addition to upper respiratory tract infections, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, air pollution was also resulting in causing heart disease to the residents of Karachi.

He added that health and performance of children, adults and elderly people was adversely being affected due to immensely polluted air in Karachi. Fortunately, the sea breeze, which regularly blows towards Karachi, cleans the air of the city; otherwise, the burning of such a large number of garbage could result in the destruction of the city and people would be forced to migrate to other places because of environmental pollution, Nasar Usmani, an environmentalist claimed.

What Sepa does

In response to the burning of garbage in the city, the Sindh environment minister and the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) have once again issued statements and warnings to those who are dumping and burning garbage, saying ‘stern action” will be taken against the perpetrators of the criminal act, but so far no such action has been visible against any person or authority.

Despite issuing notices and even environmental protection orders (EPOs) against district municipal authorities (DMCs), cantonment boards and residential societies, none of them were ever prosecuted, fined or sent behind bars, giving a clean chit to everybody in Karachi to create environmental and public health problems for millions of people.

“The Sindh environment minister has taken serious notice of the burning of garbage within the city limits and ordered stern action against violators. In this context, this matter will be assigned topmost priority. Authorities have sought a regular report in this regard on a weekly basis,” the additional secretary of the environment department said in a letter to Sepa on Friday.