Daily Times

A highly polluted environment is being provided to the students due to which their health is at risk. Children who had been kept at home for more than six months to protect from coronavirus, now being pushed towards diseases due to non disposal of garbage outsides of schools.

In the light of government directives, schools closed due to Covid-19 have started reopening, while garbage outside the schools has not yet been disposed off. Schools’ walls have become a spot for dumping garbage, which allows mosquitoes and flies to thrive on it. The area smells so pungent that one can hardly breathe while passing from there. Furthermore, stagnant water has collected around the garbage where flies and mosquitoes breed. Algae cover the water, making things worse.

The issue cannot be blamed on the rains in Karachi, as garbage and stagnant water could be seen lying around the environs of the school last year also. However, the recent torrential rains in Karachi might have aggravated the issue. The school administration should be highly concerned about it just as I am sure all parents are.

This becomes the first responsibility of the government to get the garbage removed urgently and make sure the place remains spotless at all times and should ensure this so as not to endanger the health of students.

If cleanliness, is not addressed on emergency basis, poses the threat of coronavirus pandemic, imperiling students’ health and safety. Moreover, fumigation and disinfecting initiatives on approx entire public schools remains in abeyance, even as educational institutions are set to reopen after a six months long closure.

As, Sindh School Education and Literacy Department’s steering committee had earlier approved pandemic related guidelines to be observed at educational institutions as they reopen. In a notification issued in this regard, educations’ managements were instructed to ensure the regular cleaning and disinfecting of school building, as well as round the clock availability of water and sanitation facilities. As per their instructions, classrooms, washrooms, other areas, and furnitures were all to be disinfected regularly,

Private schools will somehow ensure the implementation on the guidelines directed by the Education & Literacy Department, while poor condition of the schools running under Sindh government where lack of sweepers is a major problem, needs an urgently attention to protect children from diseases spread by coronavirus and contamination. In fact, in the view of ground realities it seems that Sindh Government is generally not bothered about all these issues posing hazards to children’s health.