KARACHI: ‘Competent’ authorities exposed in beach work
KARACHI, Aug 22: The beach-cleaning operations by various institutions on the 7.5 kilometre section of the Clifton coast, right from Sheerin Jinnah Colony up to the Village Restaurant, is being carried without any proper planning and coordination and also against the directives of foreign pollution-control experts.
Serious contradictions may been observed in the statements by the competent authorities, who convey directives from time to time to their subordinates, and the executing authorities.
It has also been observed that the local authorities disagree with the foreign exports’ approach on a number of issues.
The city government’s jurisdiction is 5.5 km — from Sheerin Jinnah Colony to Sindbad — and it is supported by the KPT whereas the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) has undertaken cleaning of the rest of the area with the help of Edhi volunteers.
Besides, a number of departments and NGOs are engaged in assessing the quantum of damage. Some of them are Fisheries department, Sindh Wildlife Department, National Institute of Oceanography and the University of Karachi.
It is surprising that no centralized control centre has been established to ensure proper coordination among all those involved in the operations to deal with the highly dangerous and volatile situation. Nor is there any public information centre anywhere in the city to warn or soothe the vulnerable population.
There have been reports of marine life being affected and in this regard two dead and as many affected alive turtles have washed ashore. However, the Sindh Wildlife Department, handling a turtle project for the last 20 years, seems quite indifferent. It even did not bother to have a glimpse of the victims or offer help to rehabilitate the alive ones.
While no authority is willing to take responsibility of documenting the dead fish or properly dispose of the stocks since their recovery from the affected beaches, the city government officials and Edhi volunteers are waiting for a green signal from some competent authority for dumping. Both the institutions claim that the dumping had been stopped probably by the Navy.
Edhi Foundation had been dumping the dead sea creatures at a site in Seaview and the city government, in order to prevent spread of foul smell, had been burying the trash at an undisclosed location somewhere on the beach.
Director of Fisheries Waheed Ahmed has said that a committee, headed by a deputy director of the Sindh Fisheries Department has been formed to ensure proper disposal of the dead stocks. The other members of the committee are an assistant director in the fish harbour and four watchmen.
He said that the assessment of losses is being done by the Marine Biology Department of Karachi University and the National Institute of Oceanography. It will take some time to finalize the reports, he added.
About the place for disposal of the dead fish, he said that the matter would be looked into by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the committee has clearly stated that it had nothing to do with recording the species, their number or any other matter related to the dead fish dumped at Seaview.
Incidentally, nobody in the department has any idea regarding the disposal of the dead fish and the department wants the EPA, KPT and city government to handle the dead stocks still lying on the beach.
Waheed Ahmed has no idea about the claim of the insurance company of Tasman Spirit regarding economic loss suffered by the fishermen or the fish stocks.
According to the KPT, all individual claims are to be moved through the PNSC and fish loss and damage to the economic activity is to be determined by the Fisheries department.
The city government, after getting recovered from the city Nazim’s earlier rhetoric that all the beach-cleaning expenses would be borne by Karachi, is approaching the KPT to file claims of its own expenses. It has not assessed the damage to public property.
Local agencies are at odds with the foreign pollution-control experts over the cleaning and disposal of the oil-soaked sand being removed from the beaches. The exports’ team had opposed use of heavy machinery to scrap oil-soaked sand and recommended use of shovels. On the contrary, the experts and workers of city government preferred use of heavy machinery.
They insist that the best way to remove the oil from the sea is to clean the sand repeatedly.
Difference of opinion is visible regarding disposal also of the contaminated earth. The foreign team regard it unadvisable to keep it in the open or bury it as both of them are not environment-friendly practices. Instead, they suggest, the sand be consumed in construction of roads, buildings, etc., after mixing it with limestone.
However, the city government has almost finalized plans to dispose of the waste at a landfill site in Jam Chakro, off Super Highway.
It may be noted that the KPT had been appreciating the DHA for its generous offer and practical help in making a makeshift dumping site available to the KPT within the Authority’s limits and senior officials had been claiming that all this toxic waste would properly be disposed of later where oil-consuming bacteria would be introduced.
However, on Thursday the DHA abruptly withdrew the facility and closed the site near Misri Shah.—PPI
