Nightmare in Karachi

After the stories of garbage piled up as mountains across Karachi, clogged sewers, rainwater on streets and swarms of flies invading the city, it seems impossible to believe there can be any worse news from the Sindh capital. But this news has come. It was broken in a tweet from Shaniera Akram, the Australian-born wife of former cricketer Waseem Akram. Shaniera pointed out the large expanse of medical waste lying on the Clifton beach. The waste included syringes, empty vials, IV bags and other discarded equipment from hospitals. Some of it is believed to have been thrown up by the ocean. As the images of the hazardous material which had been washed up in the ocean filled social media and was played out on TV channels, the Karachi administration rushed to the beach and were able to clear up the mess – hopefully before any damage was done. So, Clifton beach is at least back to normal. But we must ask why it took a tweet from a celebrity for action to follow, and from where this waste washed up in the first place? Only if these details are known can we avoid another catastrophe of a similar nature.

It should be noted that tough laws exist in our country on the disposal of medical waste. Because of its highly infectious nature, hospitals are required to build incinerators in which the material can be destroyed. This often does not happen, leaving items open for resale or reuse. In other parts of Karachi, people are wading through the muddy water left behind after Monday’s intermittent rainfall. As inevitably happens in Karachi, the rain caused by a low in the Arabian Sea, flooded many roads in Malir, Nursery and Korangi. Cleaning up will be no easy matter and in the meantime K-Electric continues to remain a challenge. Turning off the power is the solution to live wires they have come up with, unmindful of the fact that this works against the already heat exhausted and weary people of a ravaged city. Is there any wonder then that Karachi has been ranked among the 10 least liveable cities in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in The Global Liveability Index 2019 published on Wednesday?