What can bring about a change? Civic sense or civic management!

Islamabad : Every few years and we see devastating floods hitting various parts of country. Every time this natural calamity hits, we watch and hear about the devastation the floods have caused.

People died, swept away in surging waters, drown in open manholes or deep ponds those have emerged because rain water has flowed in to the shallow parts with no means to flush it out.

We hear about people, poor men, women and children dying, buried under collapsed rooftops or crushed under walls.

Drains get chocked, roads damaged, crops washed away, cattle drowned. And everybody launch a verbal barrage of inefficiency and negligence on part of the government and the civic bodies. Especially from the high and mighty ones who may not have received a drop of rain on their heads, with or without hair but leading all the criticism! (No pun intended.)

Well, over the decades this has become kind of a ritual for our politicians, the most popular ‘blame game’!

But one must think seriously, is this really the responsibility of the government and the civic agencies to keep our streets, bazaars, roads, lakes, streams, canals and rivers clean. Or, do we, the citizens also have some social and civic duties and responsibilities?

Well, there indeed is one example, and a very latest one, that abundantly shows that if even a single person in the right place starts thinking positively and embarks upon a task, he can accomplish the objective or goal he had set not for himself but for betterment of society.

No flattering at all but the sitting Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad when decided to get rid the city of plastic, he almost succeeded! Had it not for COVID-19, with the help of his teams, he had almost accomplished the task!

But now the plastic is back in Islamabad! And this picture showing just a tiny part of the once lovely ‘Lake View Park’ side of the Rawal Lake bespeaks of the irresponsible attitude of public, leading to create this ugly sight.

Just a simple act of responsibility on part of general public visiting this lovely entertainment facility could have prevented this mess and maintained the beauty of the lake.

Simply collect whatever trash you are carrying in shape of food packets, chips, crackers, biscuit-packs, bottles and whatever that leaves a wrapper at the end of consumption of any goodie, should be put in one bag and dumped in the trash cans placed at convenient spots all over the park!

Well, if people are not doing this despite the fact that the civic body has placed ‘instructions’ for public to use trash cans, it means there is something wrong with the effort somewhere.

Either these public service messages are not adequately or properly displayed and they are not clearly visible or people are not ready to cast glances towards these signs.

There still is an easy solution available for the civic body, be it the Islamabad Municipal Corporation (IMC) or the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to install a simple ‘Public Address’ (PA) system and put a recording, announcing instructions, guidelines and appeals for people to follow.

People may not be ready to read but they will not be able to avoid listening to these announcements! We wonder if the idea is worth a try!