Daily Times

KARACHI: Plastic is one of the most hazardous components contained in over 10,000 tonnes municipal waste generated in Karachi daily. It is causing irreversible damage to physical and marine environment and ecology of the city, owing to unavailability of a viable waste management system.

Speakers at a session held to mark the Earth Day said on Monday that unchecked plastic waste could cause a municipal and health safety catastrophe anytime in a city like Karachi.

World Earth Day is being celebrated around the world on the theme ‘End Plastic Pollution’. “It is high time that city’s authorities should come up with a comprehensive and workable plan to mitigate serious damage being done to the environment due to plastic garbage generated daily in Karachi,” said the president of the National Forum for Environment and Health, Naeem Qureshi.

He and others were of the view that previous attempts to ban polythene shopping bags or to impose standardisation on polythene manufacturing industry had produced no results as plastic bags continued to be the most serious threat to marine and physical environment of the city.

They said that until and unless a proper municipal waste management system was developed in the city, its environment would remain exposed to the threat of plastic waste.

“From blockage of sewerage system to littering of waste on shoreline and coastal areas, plastic waste posed a serious threat equally to safety of human, marine, animal, bird and plant life in Karachi.”

They appealed that judicial commission working on water and drainage issues of the province should also issue directives to municipal authorities concerned to prepare and adopt proper guidelines for managing and disposal of plastic waste.

“Without any doubt, plastic waste has always been biggest issue hampering proper working of our drainage and sewerage systems as this waste has to be properly disposed of so to avoid chocking of our sewers,” said Qureshi.

He said that disposable plastic products were being widely used in every household and workplaces. Their usage should be discouraged, and recycling of plastic waste should be promoted to the maximum possible extent to ensure safety of the city’s environment, he added.

“Sindh government should empower regular policing system to penalise people, businesses and industries, which continued to spread plastic pollution with total disregard to cleanliness of the city.”

“With constantly lessening greenery, plastic waste will create serious consequence for city’s civic and municipal systems as we have to act fast to save the situation from utter crash,” he added.

World Earth Day ‘end plastic pollution’ seems to be tailor-made for a metropolitan city like Karachi where unchecked plastic waste poses a serious threat to environment as city is nowhere near to build a proper waste management system.

Published in Daily Times, April 24^th 2018.