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Thursday March 28, 2024

A comparative study in civic management

KarachiThe drive from the Dulles International Airport, which serves Washington DC and is situated in the state of Virginia, was spectacular, indeed. The 45-minute drive from the airport to German Town, Maryland, was a refreshing sight. Both sides of the highway were lined with lush trees, the countryside being meticulously

By Anil Datta
October 24, 2015
Karachi
The drive from the Dulles International Airport, which serves Washington DC and is situated in the state of Virginia, was spectacular, indeed. The 45-minute drive from the airport to German Town, Maryland, was a refreshing sight. Both sides of the highway were lined with lush trees, the countryside being meticulously manicured.
The air was so clean and clear, it was refreshing to inhale. Added to that was the thoroughly disciplined traffic with an endless stream of automobiles driving away at full speed, yet no overtaking the wrong way, no honking.
Ultimately, we reached our destination, my dear ones’ residence in German Town. The environs were picturesque, indeed, with a beautiful sapphire lake ringed by a lush forest. Despite the lake water being stagnant, there was nothing that could even remotely be termed smell.
Early morning made a beautiful sight at around sunset.
Despite the houses being situated close to each other, there was spotless cleanliness, not a speck littering the roadside. Early morning, one would see trucks coming over to tidy the area. What was most impressing was the meticulous preservation of greenery which kept the whole area environmentally so sound. Trees are supposed to be the lungs of a city and there were so many of them there.
Most of all, however, was the civic sense among the inhabitants who took pains to keep the area clean. There is total awareness among the public that a clean city is entirely to their advantage, both from the aesthetic and the health perspective. What is striking is the cooperation of the public with the civic authorities in keeping their environment clean -- and it sure is clean.
This is an interesting comparison with my country, Pakistan, a country that I love more than my life. Being the inhabitant of a middle-class locality, the comparison is driven home most emphatically.
While in German Town, I did not miss a single day of my early morning walk and never once did I encounter a nasty incident. On the other hand while on a morning walk two weeks ago back home in Karachi, my own hometown, I was robbed at gunpoint of all the money I had on my person by a motorcyclist. Fortunately, a sheer happy augury, I had left my cell phone and my CNIC at home so that I was spared the gruelling ordeal of having to go in for another CNIC or for another cell phone, in the process losing my electronic telephone directory in the contraption.
Every morning on my walk, I have to pass by a massive garbage heap covering more than half the breadth of the road with crows foraging into the garbage and often pecking away at the skulls of the passers-by. There’s not a speck of greenery for miles around, only concrete, as if the builder’s were in a frantic competition to be the first ones to reach the sky, and buses in a competition to “out-honk” one another.
Come to the Saddar and right at the start of Mir Karam Ali Talpur Road is a massive garbage heap where one’s nostrils are assailed by the most stomach-wrenching of odours.
This comparison brings to the fore the fact that our civic agencies are just not bothered about the interests of the masses, their health or their aesthetic sense. These filth heaps are not just an eyesore but are the breeding ground for disease and infection. Yet the civic managers have this devil-may-care attitude. While we pay taxes for civic upkeep, we just do not get their worth.
This reminds me of a remark made recently by a German visitor to Pakistan. Even though his tone was a wee bit pedantic, what he said made real sense. He said, “You have a beautiful country. Don’t ruin it by letting the garbage heaps go unhindered or another few years and these heaps will outstrip the Nanga Parbat.”