Tahir Qureshi, a senior member of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), voices serious concern for this ignorance. "I have visited many Third World countries, but nowhere have I seen the sea being treated as a dumping place for all industrial and urban waste. It is unfortunate that we do not appreciate the contribution of the sea to the national exchequer, which is 8.8 billion rupees per year,” he says.

Qureshi also says that the quantum of pollution on Karachi’s coastline is huge and that Korangi Creek is more like a “ganda nala.”

According to the official, four to five outlets take this waste into the creek, which has resulted in a drastic drop in the number of fish and shrimps in creek waters, and the few left are contaminated.

"The situation in other creeks is not different. Most of the fishing in Pakistan is carried out in polluted creek waters, so one can say that 80 per cent of the fish sold in the local market is contaminated," he asserts.

Effect on food chain

Describing its effect on mangroves, Qureshi explained that though large trees are thriving because dung acts as manure, eutrophication, a process caused by the increase of chemical nutrients, kills seedlings. “I had conducted a survey of the area in 1991 and again in 1997 which had shown a considerable increase in pollution. Lung, eye, skin problems are common in coastal villages such as Ibrahim Hyderi, Lat Basti, and Rehri, caused by polluted waters.”

The fallout of the lack of a proper waste disposal system is not limited to humans alone. There is widespread disease among animals kept in unnatural conditions in the colony.

“Mastitis, the inflammation of the udder, is rampant and every year, there are outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and haemorrhagic septicemia, with farmers incurring huge losses. These affect milk yield and its quality too," says Dr Khurshid Alam, a private vet in Cattle Colony.

"Indeed, there are many slums in Karachi, but we should be concerned about this colony since it serves as the prime source of milk for the city," explains the vet.

Export of dung

There was a time, when a part of the dung from this area was a source of income for locals as it was used for agricultural purposes not only in the rural areas close to Karachi but also in the Middle East. Export of dung came to a halt in the mid 1990s after an outbreak of Rinderpest, an infectious viral disease of cattle, and to date, it stands suspended. The ME buyers found suppliers in India and Bangladesh and never returned, despite the fact that Pakistan has been declared free of the disease.

Haji Sikandar of Karachi Dairy Farmers Association speaks of the plight of his fraternity. "Dung is no longer being sold for agriculture purposes as farmers cannot afford to pay high transport charges. Human and animal populations have risen so there is no place to dry it. Some dry it on the streets to sell it but such farmers are few,” he complains.

“Almost the entire dung goes into the sea. An animal produces 10 to 12 kg of dung daily and farmers spend extra on water and electricity to flush it into the sea," continues Sikandar.

Much-dreaded methane

Explaining the damage to marine life by dung decomposition, Tooba Haq of Centre for Environmental Studies, Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), says that when organic decomposition takes place in water, micro-organisms involved in the decomposition use oxygen to break down into simpler components, killing all other organisms depending upon oxygen for survival. The most dangerous part is that when this decomposition takes place in the absence of oxygen, anaerobic decomposition takes place, producing large quantities of methane.

“Methane is an extremely harmful green house gas. It is 21 times more damaging than carbon dioxide. Samples taken from coastal waters have shown extremely high levels of biological and chemical pollutants,” she asserts.