AS one enters Karimabad, Musa Colony, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Surjani Town, New Karachi, North Karachi or just any other area of Karachi, a reeking smell of garbage hits one in the face.

The residents of this city will agree with me when I say that we do not need to read about the deteriorating state of the city’s sanitation in a letter to the editor.

The proof stands there naked for all to see in the street corners, heap dumps overflowing (not to mention oversmelling) sewage drains.

The sight of an Afghan boy scavenging in the heap is also a sight most of us are familiar with, and tend to forget as soon as we see it.

It is pretty obvious that the municipal institutions in the city have proven themselves unsuitable for the task of catering to the hygiene need of this city’s burgeoning population.

Its performance has been characterised by a steady decline over passing years, especially after the imposition of the Municipal Act of 1979. Garbage-collecting trucks are almost non-existential, except perhaps in posh areas such as the DHA where the high-and-mighty of the city reside.

Sanitary workers dump garbage on random empty plots, and this practice is particularly detrimental to the aesthetic beauty of the city.

These elements need to be regulated with an iron hand, and it is obvious that municipal organisations are not doing what is needed.

The organisation has no public representation; it’s just another organisation chock-full of bureaucrats.

I would like to register my protest on the havoc wreaked on Karachi by these good-for-nothing institutions, and appeal to the governor and the chief minister to take note of this situation and launch a municipal emergency before disease breaks out.

M. NAEEM QURESHI
President, National Forum for Environment and Health
Karachi