Litter, litter everywhere: Garbage-filled streets dampen Eid spirit

LG minister had directed ‘proper cleanliness arrangements’ in light of religious festival

KARACHI: The local government minister had directed the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) and all district municipal corporations (DMCs) to make proper cleanliness arrangements ahead of Eid in the city.

However, minister Jam Khan Shoro’s ‘orders’ fell on deaf ears as heaps of garbage littered the streets of the city over Eidul Fitr and sewage continued to flow unabated on the city’s roads.

A case in point is of Masjid Farooq-e-Azam in North Nazimabad’s Block-K, where garbage strewn across the mosque’s boundary wall has blocked the entire street leading to the worship place.



A resident of the area, Muhammad Mushtaq, who has been living there since the last 20 years, told The Express Tribune that the situation in front of the mosque is getting worse each day.

“The trash has been lying there for more than two years,” he said, adding that “several applications have been written to various government officials but nothing happens.”

He claimed that a day before Eid a small van came and picked up little bit of the trash and then left.

The mosque’s coordinator, Ali Muhammad, pointed out that the mosque is one of the largest in the area and more than 7,000 worshippers gathered there for Eid prayers. Yet, he said, the authorities are not ready to pay any heed to their demands of getting the garbage picked up.

“It is very rare for a vehicle to come and pick some of the garbage,” he said, adding that the street leading to the mosque is completely blocked as a result.

DMC Central administrator Aisha Abro did not respond to repeated calls for comment.



Likewise, overflowing gutters have left residents of Mehmoodabad and the Karachi Administration Employees Cooperative Housing Society trapped inside their homes for the last month.

A resident of the area, Javed, said they were unable to even step outside their houses to offer prayers at the mosque. For the Eid prayers, he said only those people were able to go towards the mosques who had their own vehicles, as it is impossible to walk in the area due to the presence of overflowing sewage.

One of Karachi’s busiest streets, Teen Hatti, where three roads meet at the intersection, is also badly inundated with sewage which results in halting of traffic for hours.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2016.