Section 144 imposed on Clifton beach to aid clean-up of medical waste

[MenInG]

Section 144 has been imposed in the Clifton beach area of Karachi as the city government makes frantic efforts to clean up hazardous waste that has accumulated on the waterfront in the past two days.

Hospital waste, especially several open-needle syringes, have washed up on the shore and pose a severe health hazard for the citizens visiting the beach in the rainy weather.

Senior Superintendent of Police in South Karachi on Tuesday said that strict action would be taken against those responsible for dumping hazardous waste on the Sea View beach in Clifton.

Earlier today, Shaniera Akram, the wife of former Pakistan cricket team captain Wasim Akram, took to Twitter to share the images from the beach in a bid to force authorities to clean-up the area.

"There is kilometres of medical waste including hundreds of open needle syringes, among other things, that has come in from the ocean. Clifton beach, at this moment, is extremely dangerous," she said.

In a series of messages posted on Tuesday, Shaniera stressed that the media should broadcast the images of the garbage piled up on the beach, as it has a duty of care to protect the lives of the people of Karachi.

"I have walked on Clifton beach every day for the last four years and I have never been scared until today. This beach needs to be shut down now," Shaniera tweeted.

Light rain is expected to continue in different areas of Karachi today as the city reels from the impact of a heavy downpour it witnessed on Monday.

The MET office has forecast light spells of rain in the provincial capital throughout the day, however, the city is unlikely to see another heavy spell of rain till later in the week.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/246540-section-144-imposed-on-clifton-beach-says-ssp-south-karachi

 

[Abdullah719]

How did it end up there....

 

[Savak]

Karachi needs liberation from the 18th Amendment

 

[Abdullah719]

Excerpts from a Tribune article:

The government’s view

Sindh Chief Minister’s Adviser on Environment Barrister Murtaza Wahab arrived at the site with at least a dozen men in tow. He refuted Akram’s claims of a mass of medical waste, saying there were only around a dozen ‘used syringes’. “It was a negative tweet,” he said, about Akram’s tweet. “We will ensure the hospitals’ waste is disposed of properly,” he added.

Inspecting the cleanliness effort at the beach, Wahab said that the strip did not fall under the Sindh government’s jurisdiction. He said that the Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Haider Zaidi was responsible for the beach and should look into the matter of waste being disposed of at site. “But we immediately responded and we will ensure that hospital waste is disposed of properly,” he pledged, adding that his department will write letters to all hospitals, directing them to abide by the law.

Rehri Goth

The provincial government, which almost seems immune to the citizens’ woes, may have underplayed the number of syringes at the Clifton Beach, but they haven’t even given a moment’s notice to the hundreds of used syringes, medical waste and industrial waste that finds its way along the coastal belt near settlements such as Ibrahim Hyderi, Rehri Goth and Latt Basti.

“For over a decade, hundreds of syringes are being dumped outside our villages but no one takes any action,” complained Ali Mohammad, a resident of Rehri Goth. He said that the residential areas are filled with a perpetual unpleasant odour, courtesy of the waste from Bhains Colony that gets thrown into the water. Mohammad believes most of the syringes and other garbage is dumped into the waterways without any check and ultimately finds its way into the sea. “We find these syringes several kilometres out in the sea,” he pointed out, adding that they have hurt many villagers and visitors in the past.

“All resources were used and the beach was cleaned within a few hours because a powerful person tweeted,” laughed another resident, Akhtar Turk. “None of us are that powerful nor can our tweets grab the attention of the authorities,” he added.

The residents complained that that syringes and other waste usually makes its way to Moosani Pardho, Milkae Pardo, Usman Nimo Jo Bunder, Ghafoor Jamote Jo Bunder, Latt Basti, Rehri Goth and other localities.

Lawless

The Sindh government has failed to implement the law in letter and spirit, remarked one resident. The Sindh Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), which is responsible for implementing the law, has hardly bothered to visit the most affected areas.

“The law is there, but it is not being implemented – deliberately,” said a top official working under Wahab. “Not a single minister has ever tried to understand the environment,” he added.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, the official said that it was not their responsibility to properly dispose of the garbage. He added, however, that the SEPA must implement the law if the waste disturbs the environment and harms human health.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2048530/1-tweet-heat-sea-view-magically-neat/

 

[SensiblePakFan]

It took a famous former cricketer's foreign wife to get this Cleaned up.
PATHETIC. I bet if wasim himself tweeted this nothing would have happened.

 

[SensiblePakFan]

And ofcourse he blames the PTI politician for the waste being in his jurisdiction.

All he needs to do is turn around

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thanks to ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/iamShaniera?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@iamShaniera</a>⁩ for initiating this needful campaign and to all government officials and massive thank you to workers who come there every morning to make it look the way it is now . <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cliftonbeach?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cliftonbeach</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/congratskarachi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#congratskarachi</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/happydays?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#happydays</a> <a href="https://t.co/0NxhyYWnhr">pic.twitter.com/0NxhyYWnhr</a></p>— Wasim Akram (@wasimakramlive) <a href="https://twitter.com/wasimakramlive/status/1222721678456819712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>