KARACHI, July 20: Beach-goers from Sandspit to Cape Monze are facing great difficulties as the only medical aid and rescue centre for the beaches is without medicines and fresh water.
The city government has also ignored an offer from the navy to send its lifeguards at these beaches during the high-tide season.
A great number of Karachiites visit Hawkesbay, Sandspit, Paradise Point and Cape Monze from May to mid October. Theri number can reach fifty thousand, especially during summer holidays, which is the high-tide season.
Apart from the rough waves which can be fatal at times and usually hit picnickers against the rocks causing injuries, the high-tide season also brings the small jelly fish “blue bottle” near the shore whose sting causes muscular pain and stiffening of abdominal muscles. Summer is the mating season of this marine jelly fish and it is found in abundance near the coast. On Sundays those stung by the blue bottle arrive in large numbers at the ERC.
The Emergency Rescue Centre (ERC) of the fire brigade department of the city government is the only permanent place where people can get treatment for pain caused by the blue bottle and other physical injuries. Unfortunately, no medicines has been purchased for the ERC during the current fiscal year because of the apathy the finance department.
About 10 persons die every year due to drowning in Karachi and the figure is controllable only because of the extensive patrolling the life guards of the city government, the KDA and the Edhi Foundation.
Due to the efforts of the last city administration about 12 lifeguards from the PNS Himalaya also patrolled the Sandspit and Hawkesbay beaches. However, after the formation of the city government they have not done so. The diving school of the PNS Himalaya has repeatedly asked DCO Shafiqur Rehman Paracha whether their services are required this year, the but respond is still awaited.
According to an official of the diving school, officers were sent to personally meet the DCO in that regard but no definite answer could be obtained. It has been eleven month since the formation of the city government and the devolution of the KDA, but the 14 life guards of the KDA have not been officially merged under the ERC or with the fire department of the city government.
No casualty has been reported this season so far at the beaches falling under the jurisdiction of the city government due to the extraordinary efforts by the staff of the ERC who are joined in by the local volunteers. The ERC was re-established and transferred under the fire brigade department in 1998, the year when 11 youths of the city fell victim to the monstrous waves on August 14.
Due to coordinated efforts and hard work by the lifeguards of all the respective departments, causalities at the Sandspit, Hawkesbay and Cape Monze beaches can be nullified. — PPI