OVERFLOWING gutters, a nagging (and growing) shortage of drinking water and mounds of rotting garbage are amongst Karachi’s major problems.

Over the last decade or so the PPP has run the Sindh government, and the MQM has represented the metropolis in the national and provincial legislatures, as well as running its local bodies. Due largely to the neglect and mismanagement of lawmakers belonging to both these parties, civic problems have assumed crisis proportions.

Therefore, as election day approaches, many voters in the city will be asking candidates in their constituencies what solid plans they have to address the city’s major issues.

The PTI, in this regard, has attempted to address Karachi’s water, garbage and sewage crisis through a ‘plan of action’, details of which were published in this paper on Monday.

The party says the city’s water crisis can be addressed through desalination, while it has also suggested creating energy from waste.

Critics have given mixed responses to the PTI’s plan. Some have suggested that the (broken) system already in place should be fixed and then new options can be explored.

While water and sanitation experts and urban planners can better critique the plan and give the party constructive criticism on how to improve it, the PTI’s effort needs to be appreciated as none of the other mainstream parties vying for Karachi’s seats have come up with any sort of plan to address its civic problems.

Indeed the PTI will have a tough time in winning enough seats to form the government in Sindh, or even dominating all of Karachi’s seats. Nonetheless, whichever party comes to power in Sindh after July 25 will need to address the key civic problems the PTI has highlighted in its document.

Emotional slogans about representing Karachi and having its mandate are not enough; the voters want clean streets, water in their taps and the mountains of garbage that line the city’s roads cleared away. Whoever wants to represent Karachi must address these problems.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2018