The great divide: Goodbye Islamabad, welcome to G-11

Clean, well-maintained streets of capital turn into potholed, garbage-lined mess in ‘less-posh’ sectors.

ISLAMABAD:

Dilapidated roads and streets lined by garbage in highly-populated but less posh sectors of the capital show where the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) priorities lie.

The level of attention given to areas such as Sector G-11/1 can be gauged by the heaps of garbage and the broken road linking it with the F series of sectors, and driving into the latter seems akin to entering a new world.

Incidentally, during a press conference held on April 14, health officials from the CDA, Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) had claimed that all efforts will be made to improve solid waste management and fill potholes on roads in the city as these provide breeding grounds for dengue-carrying mosquitoes.

However, the condition of the G-11/1 Service Road would suggest otherwise.

“This garbage has been here for over 15 days and no one from CDA sanitation department has come to collect it,” said Muhammad Nadeem a greengrocer who has a produce shop just opposite the road.

While talking to The Express Tribune, he said the stench from the trash makes it difficult for them to breathe, and shopkeepers usually set fire to the garbage to get rid of it.

Moreover, substandard drainage means that puddles often form along the market area.

“During rains, most of these drains overflow, making it difficult for us to reach our shops, let alone customers,” said Saboor Hussain, the owner of a general store.

On the other hand, the road is sometimes patched up, but often, it is a case of applying a bandage to a patient requiring surgery.

“This patch of the road has been broken for years. CDA workers comes after months and fill patches, but within weeks, especially after a bit of rain, the road is as bad as before,” said Sabir Khan, a salesman at a poultry shop.

He added that the potholes create serious problems for motorists during the rain.

Hassan Sheikh, who has been living in Sector G-11/1 for five years, said, “We moved here from Satellite Town [in Rawalpindi] thinking that it is Islamabad and would be a clean area to live in, but it is actually worse due to the negligence of the CDA.”

He pointed out that undeveloped residential plots are becoming dumping grounds.

CDA spokesman Asim Kichi said that after receiving complaints about the condition of the road, the civic agency “will send sanitation workers to clean the area and [the engineering wing which handles] road maintenance to fill the potholes.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2014.