The sanitation system of Rawalpindi has collapsed as the city faces a severe financial and manpower crisis within the Rawalpindi Waste Management Company (RWMC), worsened by three days of road closures.
The city now resembles a garbage market, with heaps of trash scattered across streets, bazaars, and roadsides.
Overfilled steel trolleys have spilled garbage onto the streets, making pedestrian movement nearly impossible.
Shopkeepers say their businesses have been destroyed by the filth surrounding their shops.
Residents report a surge in diseases and unbearable stench, while sanitation workers and garbage trucks have been absent for four consecutive days.
Drains and sewage channels are choked with waste, worsening the situation.
Citizens staged a protest at Glass Factory Chowk, led by Citizen Action Committee Chairman Malik Zaheer Awan, who said that despite repeated appeals to the commissioner and deputy commissioner, no action had been taken.
He said the sanitation system has been dysfunctional for a year.
Residents including Amjad Ali, Azhar Khan, and Naveed Ali said heaps of garbage outside their homes have made sleeping at night impossible due to the rise in flies and mosquitoes. Shopkeepers Arjumand and Tahzeeb Khan from Dhoke Elahi Bakhsh said foul, toxic water from waste piles had spread across the road, driving away customers.
Citizens warned that if the waste was not cleared immediately, they would protest outside the offices of the commissioner, deputy commissioner, and RWMC.
An RWMC spokesperson said that garbage could not be lifted for the past four days due to road closures, adding that cleanup operations would resume once the routes were opened.
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