Daily Times

Sir: Recent news reports on a television channel highlight how the roads in the city of Karachi are deteriorating. The largest city in the country is lined with roads full of bumps and potholes. The drains are all overflowing and dirty water is spread out on the roads. It must be remembered that stagnant water on the roads is the biggest destroyer of roads. The commentator on the television show was saying that the department responsible for making and repairing the roads is responsible. They have a budget to constantly repair and make new roads but, instead of spending the money in the proper place, funds go elsewhere. Instead of being used for the betterment of the roads it is being pocketed by the authority themselves. This is very right but is it only them? One can also blame the sanitary workers who are not regularly cleaning the drains and, when they do, they leave the dirt on the roadside and slowly it goes to the drain once again, consequently clogging the drains once again. Once I confronted a sanitary worker who cleaned up the drains by leaving the dirt on the road but he replied by saying that the pickup truck was on its way and that it would pick up all the dirt. More than a fortnight has passed but the dirt is still there, spread all over the road. This is not the case in just one city; it is a common feature in all our main cities. Unfortunately, the villages too are rapidly deteriorating in their environmental surroundings. The sanitary workers should be blamed for this.

Then we have people breaking up and making depth changes on the roads in order to slow down the traffic. As the vehicles pass by these depth changes, they slowly erode and consequently the whole road is spoilt. What a pity. A road made for the benefit of the masses is destroyed by the masses. Again double roads are made in the big cities, strong barriers are made to separate the left running traffic from the right and U/turns are made at places where there is convenient turn with least traffic congestion. However, what do the masses do? They simply break the barrier for their convenience, thus spoiling the dual carriageway and the road, and also creating hazards for the whole traffic system. The people of the locality are to blame.

The biggest spoilers of the roads are plastic bags. True, it is very handy to carry them when shopping but these bags are a menace in the cities and villages. If we see overflowing sewers and roads flooded with dirty water it is because of these bags, which were first used for shopping but were later either thrown away or filled with litter and thrown out. Eventually, these bags find their way to the sewers, consequently clogging them. Dirty sewage water really destroys the roads. Here we have to blame the masses who are so ignorant of all this and continue creating an atmosphere that is bad for them, for society and for the environment. Finally, who is to blame? My answer is ‘everybody’. We all need to radically change ourselves. Only then will we see changes for the better.

ABID HABIB

Mirpurkhas