KARACHI: Air and noise pollution at Lea Market intolerable
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Jan 7: Thousands of people — passersby, commuters, shopkeepers, shoppers and residents — experience miserable conditions at Lea Market and its adjoining areas every day due to congestion which is resulted from heavy traffic and roadside encroachments.
The encroachers, mainly shopkeepers, occupy every inch of the passage inside the market besides footpaths. They have hardly left any space for a passerby.
Frequent traffic jams from dawn to dusk around Lea Market have become a permanent feature and the root-cause is obviously encroachments coupled with wrong parking, in most cases by public transport operators.
Noise pollution in the area is all the more intolerable, adding to the people’s woes. The noise level is as high as one cannot talk to other while passing through or crossing any road in the area. Besides vehicles’ engine noise, blowing of horns can be heard almost without any pause.
Apart from smoke-emitting vehicles, regular burning of waste at some places within the limits of Lea Market has been causing serious air pollution.
Residents of the area have constantly been calling for remedial measures saying that the air and noise pollution had made their lives extremely miserable.
They say that contrary to their tall claims of making efforts to contain pollution, officials of the city administration are yet to unveil any concrete plan to get the people rid of pollution which has become a serious health hazard.
A senior doctor at the Lyari General Hospital claimed that the noise level in Lea Market and its surrounding areas was as high as 190 decibels as against the tolerable level of 60 to 70 decibels.
He warned that such a high level of noise pollution could have an extremely negative effects on human being and cause loss of hearing, increased palpitation and blood pressure, and stomach diseases.
Calling for an immediate attention to the environmental degradation in the entire locality as well as other parts of the city, he said that the issue must be placed on top priority of national agenda.
Lea Market is one of the major commercial centres of the city housing a complex of scores of markets for different commodities. Besides, the locality is one of the densely populated areas having countless highrises and apartment blocks.
Vehicular traffic in the area is beyond its sustainability and one of the factors is a junction of upcountry buses. Transporters, particularly from Balochistan and the NWFP, have virtually converted the entire locality into a major bus terminus. The operate round-the-clock bus service and for the purpose they have set up many booking offices around the main Lea Market as well as its adjoining areas including Sheedi Village Road and Haat Chowk.
Because of an hectic transport activity, all the roads in the locality are in tatters.
Regretfully, the illegal occupation of footpaths and roads by shopkeepers, vendors and others has become a thriving business for the unscrupulous ‘agents’ who, obviously, cannot run the business without connivance with the local police, a group of social workers of the area lamented.
They pointed out that it was not possible for the encroachers to continue with their practice without the support of local administration and police.
An activist, associated with an NGO, claimed that every inch of the land in and around Lea Market was ‘allotted’ to transporters, goods carriers, pushcart owners, hawkers and vendors who pay bribe to the police to escape any action.
The residents recalled that the encroachers re-emerged soon after being removed during the ‘cosmetic anti-encroachment operations’ launched in the area time to time.
For the last several years, people of Lea Market locality have been calling for the shifting of transport business from the residential areas of Lyari Town, especially from around Lea Market, as the move could contribute greatly in curtailing air and noise pollution to at least a bearable level.
