Long march: That foul smell? It’s revolution in the air

Garbage, disease, personal hygiene management issues piling up.

ISLAMABAD:

Amid the enthusiasm and support for firebrand cleric Dr Tahirul Qadri, participants of the long march have been less enthusiastic about caring for their surroundings, or even themselves. All along Jinnah Avenue heaps of leftover food, fruit peels, plastic bottles, shopping bags, paper cups and plates, empty food boxes and fallen banners are making one of the cleanest areas of the city look like a refugee camp.

As a finishing touch, stagnant water has mixed with the heaps of garbage to add the pungent odour that was missing.

Children, some too young to walk, can be seen crawling on the roads and eating food with dirty hands. Their mothers have been unable to wash their bottles regularly due to the limited supply of water and have been washing their babies with cold water.

That is still better than most participants, some of whom freely admitted to not having bathed or brushed their teeth since Monday.

There are also no proper washroom arrangements and while most have been utilising those at nearby mosques, some men have chosen to go behind the bushes along the greenbelt instead.



The prayer leader of a mosque in F-6/1 said, “These people have spread dirt and filth everywhere in the sacred home of Allah, let them be off soon from here,” adding that the mosque’s washrooms looked like a “disaster area”. There was a long line of outside washroom while he was talking to The Express Tribune.

Dr Tanvir Malik, the emergency ward in-charge at Polyclinic Hospital, said that in the last two days, over 90 participants of the rally and policemen have come to the hospital. Most of them suffered high fever, gastrointestinitis, liver and chest pain and mild asthma attacks.

“The majority of their illness were caused by a lack of preventive measures such as exposure to cold weather, substandard food and rampant litter at the site of the sit-in,” he said.

He said the participants are not taking care of what they are eating, nor are they washing their hands properly or brushing their teeth, and many are sharing water bottles.

A view of the squalid conditions at the camp site (above), a long queue formed outside a public toilet near the protest site. PHOTO: ONLINE, MUHAMMAD JAVAID/ EXPRESS

“The flu is a communicable disease that easily spread from one person to another. They sit together and they are catching it from each other. Meanwhile, exposure to the cold is making children vulnerable to pneumonia,” he said.

He feared that in case of rain, which is expected, the situation will worsen and the number of patients could shoot up.

“Patients are being provided with the required medicines for the time being but if they continue to live in a vulnerable environment, they may suffer from more health problems,” he said.

Razia Bibi, a participant diagnosed with the flu, said, “It’s not a big deal if I get ill over here. We poor people suffered with same health problems at our homes as well as there is no gas or electricity to keep warm.”

She said she is here to fight for the rights of 180 million Pakistanis and for this she does not mind sleeping under the open sky.

When contacted a volunteer who was looking after security issues and asked not to be named, said over 100 tents on both sides of road have been installed and blankets distributed by Minhajul Quran International among the participants to protect them from the cold.

However, there was no proper arrangement of electric heaters and some of the participants burnt logs last night to warm themselves, adding potentially-lethal fire hazards to the area.

The volunteer said areas for garbage collection have been assigned to teams. While collection has not started yet, the volunteer assured that it would begin “later”. Additionally, the plans call for the garbage to be incinerated, most likely on site.

Capital Development Authority spokesperson Ramzan Sajid told The Express Tribune that the civic agency was providing facilities such as water tankers to the participants. He said sanitation workers are also working round-the-clock and more dustbins will be installed at the site.

Try as they might, sanitation staff will have an uphill task keeping up with the sit-in’s production rate.

Edited by Vaqas Asghar

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2013.