KARACHI, May 25: All the town administrations in Karachi district have been asked to ensure complete cleaning of beaches within the next two weeks and come out with a plan to continue with the practice on a regular basis. The directive has been issued by Additional Chief Secretary Local Government Salim Khan, who heads the committee constituted by Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad for the cleaning of beaches on scientific lines.
This was stated by Shahida Kausar Farooq, Chairperson of Subh-e-Nau, an NGO working for environment and public health awareness, while addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club.
She pointed out that her organization had taken up the initiative of beach cleaning in the wake of the tsunami that hit various Asian coasts recently. She said that the committee had been assigned the task of sorting out the issues in this regard and acting as a coordinating body for such activities.
She recalled that at a meeting held on May 16, the ACS had directed city government to focus on the availability of toilets for beach-goers, cleaning of beaches on a regular basis, strict check on encroachment and littering, etc. Saddar Town administration, he added, was issued specific instructions for taking necessary measures in this regard.
Pointing out that cleaning of beaches had been taken in hand first by involving students and it was noted that the waste dumped at beaches included hospital waste and hazardous trash. “This is beyond ordinary man’s capacity to handle it,” she maintained, and stressed the need for creating awareness through a programme to ensure that people responded positively and contributed accordingly to the cause of a clean and healthy environment.
She noted that cooperation by public was essential because without the involvement of people, cleanliness along beaches could not sustain for long.
Ms Shahida suggested that in order to achieve positive results, it was necessary to keep the beach area undergoing a cleaning operation closed to vehicular traffic. She said that cleaning of about one-km area of the beach should be undertaken at a time and the area should be kept closed for 7-10 days.—APP
