FOR a year now, unattended gas leaks have been plaguing DHA Karachi. Our 22-year-old Lasura tree that grew along the boundary wall withered, as did a strip of grass and a variety of frangipani and palms — old healthy established foliage that our city needs all too badly.

Our frantic efforts — watering, spraying with insecticides or fertilizing — amounted to naught. It seemed like someone had poisoned our soil from point A to point B along the boundary wall. The rest of the garden was fine.

A soil expert detected the smell of petroleum and identified it as a gas leak. This turned out to be the easier part. Dealing with the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) was harder. For months, the SSGC office at Clifton (behind Vincy Mall) remained shut under the pretext of Covid 19 and the designated complaint numbers remained unresponsive. The office finally reopened.

Running from officer to officer and department to department, we reached the head on the first-floor. He told us to go to the Civic Centre. “But isn’t this office for DHA and Clifton residents?” we asked. Yes, he said, but it was not for leaks. “Can you please call someone at the centre on our behalf? We’d like to avoid it due to the pandemic,” we pleaded, trying to hand in the written complaint. But leaks were clearly not his business!

As luck would have it, our call on one of the numbers got answered and a van was sent. They found the leak and said someone would be sent to fix it. No one came. A relative in phase VII says that his neighbourhood lost a number of grand trees — Neem, Gul Mohar and Champa. Their experience with the SSGC was identical to ours. Collectively, they even attempted to repair the pipeline but during the recent rains he saw bubbling streams of gas along the roadside (video and addresses available).

The pandemic carries on, our plants stand dead and we continue to wait. Meanwhile, the smell of gas pervades the air and is clearly discernible from both sides of the wall. Discussing the matter with friends revealed that the problem is more widespread than we had imagined. Disheartened by SSGC’s apathy and taking the matter into their own hands, some households have dug pits along the leaking pipes hence diverting the gas away from their gardens. But diverted where? Into thin air!

Nazli Rafat Jamal
Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2020