KARACHI, Aug 9: The environment committee of the City Council in its quarterly report presented on Friday deplored the pathetic situation of environment in Karachi and maintained that there existed no authority to control the ever-increasing rate of pollution in the metropolis.

The chairperson of the committee, Mehrunnisa Baloch, presented the report which highlights numerous factors responsible for the decline of environmental condition, ranging from the presence of unhygienic food stuff and supply of impure drinking water to the increase in rate of pollutants.

The report also blames the delay in devolution of various departments responsible for containing sources of pollution, which also caused hurdles in preparation of the report.

It may be mentioned that there are different departments to check various pollutants; for example, noise and air pollutions caused by vehicles are to be dealt with by the traffic police and no agency is directly responsible for cleaning the highly polluted water of Lyari and Malir rivers.

The report specifically mentions eight major environmental hazards, including existence of factories in residential areas, lack of pure drinking water supplied by the KWSB, absence of any regulatory control over slaughterhouses where anything can be cut for human consumption.

The report deplores, what it calls, the indifferent attitude of concerned officials towards uncovered and unhygienic ways of transporting meat, sale of contaminated milk and other substandard quality eatables, whereas major causes for water pollution, according to the report, are untreated industrial and domestic effluents discharged directly into the Lyari and Malir rivers, which ultimately go into the sea.

Ms Baloch in her speech called upon the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), Sindh, to initiate pollution control measures in large factories and firms, including the oil installations in Keamari, which are causing severe damage to marine life.

Tahira Kokab from Orangi Town lauded the author for preparing a comprehensive report without any support and facilities provided by the city government.

She informed the house about lack of proper infrastructure in a number of localities, including Orangi Town, which were causing unhygienic atmosphere.

Siddique Rathore said despite numerous structural changes in civic bodies, the concerned authorities responsible for sanitation were still at loggerheads with each other over who should lift the waste coming out from choked gutters, and resultantly the refuse remained on roads for days.

Razzaq Sanghani called for accountability of the departments responsible for making the city green, though, he said, huge amount was being spent on tree plantation campaign and development of parks every year.

Najmi Alam criticized the KWSB for its inefficient operation of treatment plants and said that despite presence of three of them in the city, untreated effluents were being thrown into the sea, damaging the ecosystem of coastal areas.

The house will resume, on Saturday, further discussions on the report and will also take up the issue of the Siddique Goth Lower Secondary School.—PPI