Eidul Azha concludes peacefully

Offal disposal efforts leave much to be desired

KARACHI:

Eidul Azha was celebrated with utmost devotion and respect across the country.

Animal sacrifices continued at homes and in various places. Children, who were at the forefront of caring for the animals, were saddened after the sacrifices.

On the first day of Eidul Azha in Karachi, elders were engaged in sacrifice, while the children woke up early in the morning to spend time with the animals. The kids loved, fed and watered their animals before the sacrifice.

Many of the grief-stricken kids said they spent a lot of time with their various creatures.

"The animals became familiar to us. We fed and watered them, but today our hearts have been saddened by their slaughter," one of them said. Many others expressed their passion for the Sunnah of Hazrat Ibrahim (AS).

One the one hand, they were saddened to see their cows and goats being sacrificed, but felt that it strengthened their spirit of sacrifice.

Meanwhile, those children whose animals would be sacrificed on the second day of Eid were happy to have another day with their animals.

Awful offal

Arrangements to disposed of offal failed miserably due to poor strategy and untrained staff on all three days of Eid.

There were piles of animal waste everywhere in the city and the stench spread across several areas. It was reported that many citizens also suffered from various diseases due to unsanitary conditions. The blood of the slaughtered animals was not washed properly and nor was lime sprinkled in the affected areas.

There were piles of offal and other remains of slaughtered animals in different parts of the city including Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Korangi, Landhi, Malir, BaldiaTown, Bahadurabad, PIB Colony, North Karachi, New Karachi, Shah Faisal Colony and Liaquatabad.

Due to this situation, the stench spread in these areas. Observers reported that conditions were so unbearable in many areas that passing locals would suffer from extreme nausea. The remains of animals still fill garbage dumps, creating a horrifying situation.

During the three days of Eid, the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board made promises of a cleanup operation, but reports from the ground painted a different picture. In practice, the situation was the exact opposite of what was claimed. There were also some areas in the city where offal was piled up and not disposed till 24 to 48 hours later.

The board's staff visited the area after intervals of several hours. In the past, after picking up offal, these places were sprayed with antiseptic and washed with the help of fire brigade vehicles.

However, this time only certain areas were lucky enough to be sprayed with disinfectant. In most parts of the city, the roads were not washed and no lime was sprayed. Experts said that spraying lime reduced the risk of the outbreak of deadly diseases.

Since this was not done in my areas, the smell reached dizzying extremes and the stench is still rising in several areas till the filing of this report.

The Sindh Solid Waste Management Board had claimed to have devised a comprehensive strategy to dispose animal waste in the city.