THE inhabitants of area around the Indus Valley School in Clifton Block 2, including Marina Elevation Apartments, are facing serious frustration owing to lack of any response from the relevant authorities to their repeated complaints about the presence of a large number of auto-repair workshops in the vicinity. A purely residential area has been completely commercialised, making even a simple walk on the street — day or night — difficult, if not impossible.

These workshops remain functional almost 16 hours a day and carry out all kinds of mechanical work that involves oil, grease, diesel, petrol and any other thing one can imagine. Add to it the denting and painting shops that deal with spray paints mixed with chemicals after they are done with gas and electric welding operations.

All these fumes and smells have left the environment seriously polluted, and the people living in the area are paying the cost with their falling health and depleting finances. And, mind you, we have yet not started talking about the noise pollution in the area. It’s severe and serious.

The trouble does not end here for the area residents. Just when these workshops begin to wind up their 16-hour day, it is time for the other nuisance in the area to begin its 8-hour operations. Indeed, I am talking about the roadside hotels and eateries in the area that remain functional till late in the night, which can also be described as early in the morning.

The two elements together consume the 24-hour lifecycle of the area residents. Now what should they do, especially when all this is happening in connivance with the relevant agencies?

The locality is inhabited by responsible citizenry who came to the area in the hope of living a peaceful life by the sea and to enjoy the breeze and an environment which was supposed to be better than most parts of the polluted city that Karachi unfortunately is. In short, they came here in the hope of having some peace of mind, and that very commodity — the peace of mind — is non-existent in the scenario described above.

The aggrieved people have made all possible efforts in terms of approaching all the relevant agencies supposedly taking care of environment, encroachments and general administration, but to no avail. Will somebody suggest some other agency that can be reached in this regard? Please? Will somebody wake up at the agencies already approached? Please. Will somebody advise us about how to wake somebody up in these agencies? Please!

Mansoor ul Haque Solangi
Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2022