KARACHI, Aug 19: The city government’s cleanliness and health campaign, which ended on August 13, could not achieve desired results as only 50 to 60 per cent of garbage could be lifted, while remaining is lying scattered on main thoroughfares and streets of the city.

A member of the city government’s sub-committee, set up to inspect cleanliness work during the campaign, told PPI that despite hectic efforts and round-the-clock working of the city government, towns and union councils administration, only 50 to 60 per cent of garbage was lifted due to limited financial and human resources.

He claimed that the main problem of the city was the choking of gutters and overflowing of sewerage lines which inundated roads and streets, and that could not be drained out in some parts of the city.

He said various towns including, Lyari, Baldia and Orangi and those located in the suburbs suffered badly in the recent rains as roads, sewerage lines and other infrastructure facilities were badly damaged.

He said during a visit to Lyari Town it came to his notice that the main problem was the choking of sewerage lines which not only played havoc with roads but also polluted the area environment.

Moreover, he added, in some of the areas sewerage water could not be drained out, and these areas had turned out to be breeding grounds for mosquitoes and flies.

He said immediate steps were needed for the removal of garbage from Kechar Nullah and Lyari River, as encroachment and dumping of garbage in these two nullahs were causing worst conditions.

There were a numbers of open manholes that posed danger to pedestrians and motorists alike, besides causing insanitary conditions.

He pointed out that kundi men were not performing their jobs, especially in the Saddar Town, which resulted into choking of gutters. He said non-availability of kundi men was a major problem in all the towns of the city government.

He maintained that towns administration had expressed strong reservations over non-cooperation of the KWSB officials during this campaign, which created severe hurdles in the cleanliness work.

He said it was suggested in the initial stage of the campaign that the sanitary staff should be placed at the disposal of the town Nazims so that the sanitary work could be carried out in a smooth way but no progress was made till the end of this campaign on Aug 13.

The member pointed out that over 8,000 tons of garbage was produced daily in the city, out of which only 4,000 to 5,000 tons was lifted, while the remaining found its way into gutters and sewerage lines.

In reply to a question, he said due to shortage of staff and vehicles the entire garbage could not be lifted.

One more area of concern, he added, was the repair of roads damaged in recent rains. He said during the cleanliness campaign only a little attention was paid on repair of roads and most of the streets were still a picture a devastation.

It is worth mentioning that most of the towns have not yet received the amount of Rs0.3 million promised by the city Nazim before the launching of the campaign so that financial constraints could not hinder the cleanliness work.

The Nazims of some the towns said they approached the city Nazim in this regard but so far they had received no response from the city government. They maintained that non-release of this amount affected cleanliness work as the towns did not have enough money to undertake cleanliness work on a largescale. —PPI