‘A whopping $10 billion needed to make Karachi liveable’

A World Bank report suggests that a colossal amount of $10 billion is required to “make Karachi a liveable city”, says Sindh Assembly opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi.

In an interview with The News, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader describes the city’s present situation as precarious. On the one hand, the metropolitan’s population is rapidly increasing which is creating unprecedented problems for the city dwellers and, on the other hand, the city has been neglected by the Pakistan Peoples Party which has been ruling the province for the last twelve years, Naqvi asserts.

He also holds Altaf Hussain’s Mutthida Qaumi Movement (MQM) responsible for “the destruction of Karachi”. Talking about the city’s seemingly unending water crisis, the PTI leader says the megalopolis needs 1100 million gallons of water per day (MGD) but it, unfortunately, gets only 500 MGD.

Speaking of the city’s poor transport system, Shamim opines that Karachi virtually does not have any public transport system as there are only 4,500 buses available in the city of over 200 million people.

Whatever buses the city has are in a shambles, he laments. The city needs at least 22,000 buses and, more importantly, a proper mass transit system, he stresses.

Talking about the city’s cleanliness issues, the PTI leader says a huge amount of unattended waste has turned the city into a giant garbage den. Around 20,000 tons of garbage comes on the streets of the city everyday but only 7,000 tons is lifted, he claims.

Naqvi says garbage is thrown into sea which harms marine life and that toxic waste from factories is also thrown into sea.

The city has too many problems, ranging from diseases like dengue fever and typhoid to incidents of dog biting, he says. But the government, he says, does not care about the city and its dwellers.

The Sindh government is also responsible for not providing basic civic facilities to the citizens, he says.