PESHAWAR has a rat problem. There are almost daily reports of patients being brought to hospital to be treated for rat bites. Each day, there are seven to 10 such cases. It is mostly small children who are the victims. Fearing disease, they are given rabies shots, which are provided free by the government. Rat infestation is not new to urban centres. Where there are open sewers, inadequate drainage lines, and piles of garbage, filth and clutter, rats exist, and they breed rapidly. But the problem seems to have reached alarming levels in Peshawar. In 2016, an eight-month-old child bled to death after his face and nose were chewed on by a rat, while his parents were asleep. The incident made headlines, but it seems the problem has only escalated since. It is not wealthy neighbourhoods that the pests pose a threat to, but the poorest localities, which are densely populated, where there is no adequate drainage system, where children sleep on the floor, as opposed to the comfort of a bed or charpoy, and where residents don’t have water to clean themselves properly. It is, in fact, connected to larger issues of hygiene, urban planning and poverty.

It is vital that the KP government take action — and quickly. So far, KP’s solution seems to be to turn to the services of one man, Naseer Khan, and his small team of committed ‘rat killers’. But there’s only so much one man can do. Khan has already expressed his reservations about using poison — his method of eradication — as livestock and other animals can also unwittingly consume the toxins. Perhaps some out-of-the-box thinking is required. For instance, in Chicago, disparaged as the ‘rat capital of the US’, feral cats have been unleashed to control the rat population. The initiative has met with some success. This much is certain: Peshawar doesn’t need a Pied Piper or pipe dreams. It needs good governance.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2018