Keep city environs clean

To be clean, Rawalpindi must solve many problems that otherwise lead to unsanitary conditions and poor health. There needs to be a culture of caring in the city, when you see someone littering, you ask him or her to pick up the trash.

“Every day, around tons of garbage per day of domestic waste along with unaccounted industrial waste are dumped along the roads, low-lying areas contaminating the soil and groundwater. Sometimes they are openly burnt emitting dangerous gases that cause severe health hazards,” says Murad Ali.

“The whole process, of garbage disposal is managed badly, characterized by apathy, irresponsibility, unaccountability, and utter lack of concern. There is the frequent shifting of garbage dumping sites, which does not solve the growing garbage crises,” adds Murad.“With growing urbanization and changing lifestyles, garbage composition has also changed. Further, there has been an enormous increase in the density of population, which has brought in its wake a ten-fold rise in garbage quantity,” says Manzar Zaidi.

“I believe that the problem of littering lies with city folk’s callous attitude. Even when there are trashcans in plain sight in the streets, no one bothers to use them. Wrappers are thrown on the sidewalk, banana peels fly out of rolled-down windows of cars, and straws are dropped nonchalantly on the streets or footpaths, as are plastic drinking cups,” says Waheed Hussain.

“Empty sites are promptly co-opted to be garbage-dumping sites. Just flip that garbage over the fence, no one is watching, is his or her thinking. It is not as if the city folks are not clean. They are; they all keep their houses clean, the fronts of their houses clean,” says Asghar Ali.

“When city residents walk out of the four walls, their attitude towards cleanliness undergoes a drastic transformation. It just does not translate to keeping the streets clean, keeping the community clean, not dumping garbage in the neighbor’s empty site, and not dropping garbage on the streets wherever one feels like it,” adds Asghar.

“It is not just the uneducated lot who do this, but also the educated lot with education and with good jobs, the ones that are supposed to know better. The city residents should shed this nonchalant attitude, and alter their civic sense considerably,” says Nafees Haider.

“People should take this city as their own and keep it clean. Every ward counselor must educate their ward members about proper garbage disposal and respect for civic decorum,” says Mureed Hasan. “The city residents must change their thinking, take it upon themselves to follow proper garbage disposal guidelines, and not just expect the Rawalpindi Waste Management Company to do the entire job. Unless people take it upon themselves the task of keeping their neighborhood and the city environs clean and litter-free, nothing will change,” adds Mureed.