KARACHI, Jan 19: Accumulation of garbage in absence of an effective disposal system has become a serious health hazard creating numerous infectious and other disease in certain towns of the city. These towns already lack proper facilities for the collection and lifting of garbage resulting in insanitary conditions quite visible in almost all the localities of each town.

The densely populated towns — Saddar, Keamari and Lyari — have a lot of designated sites where garbage collected from different localities used to be dumped and disposed of for the last many years. However, a survey conducted recently showed that there has been no trace of many of such sites whereas most of the others have been occupied by land-grabbers.

Finding no place for the purpose, people had resorted to dump domestic garbage as well as commercial and even hospital waste at their nearest street corner. Eventually, heaps of garbage emerged at every street corner aggravating the situation further.

Ironically, sanitation staff do not collect garbage from these undesignated disposal spots which have now turned into a permanent nuisance for ordinary citizens. The civic agencies have so far miserably failed to come to the rescue of the people living under sub-human condition in many parts of these tows.

During the survey, residents of different localities complained of the local administration’s inefficiency and indifferent attitude towards the intolerably unhygienic condition. They said poor management, negligence and lethargy on the part of sanitation department had not only destroyed the environment and living conditions but also contributed greatly in the spread of diseases.

Admitting their failure in containing the problem, some officials attributed the situation to insufficient financial resources.

Some of the people in serious trouble opined that the whole system was obsolete and all the efforts to modify it in order to achieve better results had gone in vain. Even the measures taken by the newly-introduced local government system, they added, had failed to deliver goods. They pointed out that worsening sanitary conditions was evidence of the system’s failure.

Though the officials of relevant departments maintained that they could not deliver effective services due to the non-availability of adequate funds, proper equipment, sufficient and efficient staff, etc, the Nazim of Saddar Town, Farooq Fariya, expressed his outrage over their inefficiency. He issued a warning to the officials to mend their ways and show results within the next 10 days.

He said that he was quite aware of the situation and visited various localities of his town over the last few days only to see a remarkably painful living conditions in certain areas. Heaps of garbage everywhere in some localities, he added, posed a serious threat to the citizens’ health.

He took a serious note of filthy water and mud gushing out of clogged drains and sewage lines at certain places and order an immediate repair work as well as clearing of stinking fluids so as to improve the sanitary and hygienic conditions to the extent of at least livable atmosphere.

The situation in Lyari is more disturbing mainly due to the shortage of sanitary workers. A Town official, however, said that an improvement would be possible only when adequate personnel were available. “We have approached the government for the lifting of the ban on employment,” he added.

In this town, housing thousands of multi-storey buildings, the insanitary conditions and lack of proper garbage disposal facilities have different dimensions. Residents of these buildings have reserved specific dumping places within the buildings’ premises. While some of them dump the garbage at ground floors, most of the others throw their waste in the backstreets. Every land in Lyari has several backstreets and, survey shows, almost all of them remain full of garbage as there has been no proper arrangement to lift and dispose it of.

Land mafia appeared to be an added misery which is out to occupy every inch of the state land. For it, the garbage disposal spots are the properties unofficially offered for illegal occupation.

Some of the worst-hit localities of Lyari Town are the residential areas of Nawababad, Daryabad, Memon Society, Khadda, Shah Beg Lane, Kalri and parts of Baghdadi where living conditions have become really miserable.

These localities are littered with undesignated dumping sites visible at least one in every street and many along the main roads. One can hardly endure the foul smell coming out of these places.

Situation in Keamari Town is no different. Though the town administration spends about Rs2.3 million on cleanliness, heaps of garbage can be visible any time any where in most of the streets and roads.

The residents have complained that there are some 547 sanitary workers on the payroll but most of them do not perform their duties regularly.

“Those who are attend their duties would never bother to sweep the narrow streets.” they pointed out.

The residents also refuted the concerned officials’ claim that 60 per cent of garbage was being lifted regularly.

People alleged that the sanitary workers did not carry the garbage and waste collected from houses and streets to the designated disposal places. “They simply collect the garbage from one locality and get rid of it by disposing of in the other,” they said.