Capital struggles with heaps of garbage

Shop owners blame city administration for trash in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD:

As consumers and traders alike refuse to bat an eye, the piles of garbage in commercial areas of the federal capital grow uninterrupted. 
 
While older markets like Aabpara, Market, Melody, and Karachi Company which have a heavy influx of customers daily the heaps of garbage are more visible, in contrast the posh shopping centers like Blue Area, Jinnah Super, and Super Market have resorted to a strategy of hiding the trash from plain sight by discarding it at the back of buildings or side alleys where there is minimal foot traffic. 
 
However, as per shop owners this is not a lack of civic sense issue but a dumpster shortage issue in the city’s commercial hotspots. Fayyaz Abbasi, who owns a shop in Blue Area the busy business district along Jinnah Avenue, while talking to the Express Tribune expressed his disappointment in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and said that even though the department has placed big dumpsters in the markets, most of them are broken and in need of repair and replacement.

“If I throw trash in a broken dumpster, it will find itself on the road or the sidewalk sooner or later,” Abbasi said. “Instead of having my trash end up on the road or sidewalk and deter customers, is it not better to discard it behind my building?” he asked.   

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Shaukat Mehmood, a shopkeeper in the encroachment infested Karachi Company market, pointing out the dumpster near his place of business, said, “a single dumpster to cater to these nearly 300-400 shops is not enough. When it gets full, where should we throw the trash?” Mehmood inquired as to why the CDA could not act fast enough in emptying the sole garbage bin if it was not keen on providing additional ones. “The authorities should have the common sense that such a dumpster can only suffice for about 100 shops,” he added. 
 
“Apart from bigger disposal spots, it is the CDA’s job to install dustbins for the thousands of customers that visit our market daily,” said Raja Ghayyur, a trader in the Aabpara market which is at an arm’s length from the CDA Secretariat. Ghayyur was of the view that since Aabapara got an immense amount of foot traffic and if customers could not locate a dustbin easily, they were bound to discard their waste on sidewalks.   

The CDA’s spokesman, Asif Mehmood, denying allegations of a lax attitude, said that cleaning crews did their job routinely and efficiently. “Our vehicles empty dumpsters on a daily basis and workers ensure that all sidewalks and roads are swept in the morning,” Asif informed. He added that the CDA could not teach civic sense to residents of Islamabad. “It is our moral responsibility to make use of the bins provided. Despite penalizing people who throw trash in public, the behavior goes on,” he told the Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2021.