ISLAMABAD: Residents of Bhara Kahu urged authorities for taking urgent and practical steps to ensure sanitation and cleanliness of the locality. They said that heaps of garbage in Bhara Kahu is directly causing epidemic outbreak and environmental pollution. The unhygienic conditions are also affecting children who play at open places. A resident, Shafaqat Ali, demanded district administration and civic bodies to check and monitor cleanliness staff in Jhuggi Mor, Bhara Pul, Simli Dam Road, Athal Chowk, Nai Abadi and Dhok Jilani. Imtiaz Rasheed Niazi, a resident of Amanullah Road said that his children do suffer from diarrhoea ‘very often’ due to contaminated underground water. “There are no filtration plants and proper sanitation system in our area,” he added. Highlighting importance of cleanliness, Polyclinic Hospital Exective Director Dr Zahid Iqbal said that 90 percent of communicable diseases are caused due to unhygienic environment and the majority of cases are reported from rural areas. During the last year, most of the viral fever cases in the capital were reported from rural areas, he added. Kasif Abbasi, a shopkeepers in Bhara Kahu, said the putrefying smell from the heaps of garbage, sometimes put on fire, is totally unbearable. Abdul Rasheed, another resident, said, “Due to lack of a solid waste management system, rural areas are the worst affected. Heaps of garbage have somehow become breeding grounds for bacteria, viruses, flies and mosquitoes,” he lamented.A senior official of the District administration said people in these areas were used to dump the solid waste at improper places, despite availability of dustbins. He said that huge piles of rubbish could be seen everywhere even in front of these dustbins. He said that most of waste, generated in the Bhara Kahu area, is dumped on streets or some unauthorised sites like vacant plots, which creates problems for sanitory workers. The official also complained about the ignorance of the residents who usually throw the waste in streets and sewerage, choking the drains. “We are doing our bit but it is shared responsibility of ours and the residents to keep cities towns and waste-courses clean. The citizens must also fulfill their responsibility,” he maintained.