Polluted waters

The sea it seems is not willing to spare Karachi for its lack of respect for the beauty of the coast. Tons of rubbish has appeared on Karachi’s Sea View Beach time and time again, following this year’s monsoon. Per data, some 13,000 tons of garbage is produced in Karachi each year. Of this solid waste, 8000 tons are collected and dumped on landfills while around 7000 tons end up in the sea. The discharge into the sea has meant that Sea View is continuing to lose its marine life. The millions of gallons of untreated waste dumped into the Arabian Sea from Karachi each day has increased the demand for biological oxygen in waters near the shore to 10 times normal. This is in addition to the presence of dangerous bacteria in the waters. Leaks from oil tankers and other vessels are another threat. The pollution of the sea and ocean has caused massive loss of ocean life and poured toxic waste into waters off which people live including fishermen and others who walk along the shores, collecting shells and other items to sell. Environmental experts say that during the monsoon, the change in the direction of the tide, as the monsoon moves towards India, means that the ocean throws back the waste that has been dumped into it. This year, the phenomenon has been particularly vivid because of the heavy rains experienced in Karachi.

The issue is one part of the loss of Karachi’s beauty. Both the Clifton Cantonment Board, and the Defence Housing Authority have been blamed for the mismanagement of these areas, and the loss of what was once a pride of Karachi: the Sea View Beach with its benches and accessible stairways and ramps allowing people to visit the sands and watch the ocean in its majesty. There’s no longer any majesty, just rubbish strewn in piles. Celebrities have tweeted again and again about this issue and some have attempted efforts to clean up the beach. But their work is obviously too little. The whole of Karachi lies as a heap of waste. The environmental impact on the sea has also been felt everywhere, with people scared to eat fish caught off the Karachi shore in case it is filled with mercury or other poisons.

It is difficult to say what the solution could be. It is obvious that Karachi is not being managed by any of the institutions and departments assigned for this task. It is obvious that no one authority or no one government can manage a city of this size and scale. Karachi needs a mayor and the local government which is entirely responsible for its civic responsibilities and for somehow finding a way to clean up the city before more environmental damage can be caused and more suffering inflicted on people who must watch their city fall apart bit by bit and piece by piece as has happened over the past few years. There is a need for a sound set of policies to deal with the growing human threat to marine life. It will require more than just saying the right things. We will need to take concrete action.