Insanitary conditions fail to prick sensitivities

Karachi
Karachi, which before Partition was one of the two cleanest cities of the subcontinent, where tuberculosis patients from all over the
subcontinent came for recuperation and convalescence because of its immaculate civic conditions and absolutely clean air (the other one being Bangalore), today presents a nauseating sight. Even up until the early 1980s, it was spotlessly clean and was referred to as the gateway to the West. Not any more.
Today most of the localities and thoroughfares present a nauseating sight. Garbage trucks plying the congested thoroughfares with their “consignment” totally uncovered and spreading
it in the vicinity is a common sight, much to the citizens’ chagrin, especially pedestrians, and spreading germs and disease.
Apart from the filth-carrying trucks, the city is becoming littered with filth heaps which seem to be assuming mountainous proportions. In this context, it would be in the fitness of things to quote a German
tourist who, a couple of months ago, while talking to The News, said: “You have an absolutely beautiful country. However, the insanitary conditions and filth heaps are a hideous scar on its beautiful face. You’d better do something about that or, within the next decade these heaps will be as high as the Nanga Parbat.”
One such heap can be seen at the beginning of the Mir Karam Ali Talpur Road, a locality that has a number of clinics and drug stores in its environs. This is in the Lucky Star restaurant vicinity. The filth
heap which seems to be assuming mountainous proportions is a real curse for the passers-by. Unfortunately, while the camera could precisely reflect the nauseating nature of the filth heap, it could not capture the stomach-wrenching odours that pervade the environs.
One of the doctors in the vicinity, when approached by The News, said: “I have time and again brought it to the notice of the concerned authorities, but it’s all just like pouring water over a duck’s back.”
Given the many months this filth heap has been there, one really is in a quandary as to when—and if—the civic authorities will wake up to the situation and help control the spread of epidemics.