ISLAMABAD: The mistrust between the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek’s (PAT) protesters and the workers of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) may lead to a stink, as the civic body’s sanitation staff has stopped collecting garbage and other waste from the site of the sit-ins.

The otherwise clean and well-maintained Constitution Avenue wears an ugly look now, especially the sit-in sites in front of the Supreme Court and Parliament House. The smell emanating from the piles of garbage and waste dumped there has made the area quite unpleasant to visit.

Also read: CDA cleans up sit-in venues

According to a CDA sanitation directorate official, the authority’s workers were initially cleaning the mess created by the protesters when the activists were stationed near Aabpara Market since August 15.

The cleanup remained regular even after the protesters entered the Red Zone on August 20. However, the garbage collection stopped after August 24 as the senior officials did not assign the sanitation staff to clean the sit-in sites.

A senior CDA official accepted that the sanitation staff had stopped undertaking their routine assignments at the sit-in site since a few days. He, however, said that this was not because they were ordered to stop working there; rather it was because they feared the protesters.

“The workers stopped working at these sites on their own, the protesters harassed them and raised suspicions on their presence among them,” he said.

He also pointed out that the PAT leaders had earlier claimed that CDA was supplying infected drinking water to the protesters, after which the civic body stopped supply water to them.

He added that on Monday when the sanitation team was fumigating the area for dengue prevention, the protestors presumed it was hazardous chemical to deter the protesters and turned angry.

Since then, the official said, the sanitation staff stopped working in the area.

Presence of garbage and waste material under the open sky, according to the environmentalists, nurtures bacteria and epidemics.

Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency Former Director General Asif Shuja said that the uncollected waste causes air pollution and the infected air spreads to other residential sectors of the federal capital and pollutes them as well.

He said that because of torrential monsoon rains, the waste would also seep into the ground and it would spoil the environment of this area even months after the ending of sit-ins.

CDA Spokesman Mohammad Asim Khichi could not be approach for comments despite repeated attempts.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2014