Needed: proper disposal of garbage

Yasir Ilyas

There is a question mark on our attitude as far as our ‘civic sense’ is concerned. We take pride in abusing facilities provided to us by the civic bodies. We find pleasure in spoiling passenger waiting booths at bus stops. We jump traffic signals wherever and whenever possible. We break streetlights and benches installed in parks. In short, we try to demolish everything that comes our way.

One such major problem, which has been witnessed quite frequently, is throwing of garbage around the containers placed by civic bodies at various points.

What people do is very painful. They collect household garbage in shopping bags and bear all the pain to carry them to the container. However they take the last step drastically wrong and throw these garbage bags in the already piled up heaps around the containers. So one finds numerous shopping bags containing garbage outside the container than it encloses inside.

Shahid Mehmood, a citizen, who was caught red-handed by INFN throwing a garbage bag outside the container from a distance, not only expressed embarrassment over his act, but pledged to abide by basic civic rules in future. “Sorry, I will not do it again,” Shahid regretted.

But what about those citizens who not only commit this wrong but also show stubbornness on their deed. “We do not have any option other than throwing garbage outside the container as it usually remains full. The city district government staff does not dispose of garbage in the container regularly and it remains full most of the time,” said Bashir Awan, a resident of Union Council 21.

Shabbir Mehngral, who runs a shop right in front of a garbage container at Pindora, said that the shameful act of throwing garbage in the open creates a lot of problems for him and his customers. “The garbage heap around the container has literally blocked the way of customers to my shop,” he said. He said that he keeps a strict check but even then women throw garbage bags around the container.

Murtaza Ahmed, another citizen, blamed rag-pickers and scavengers for scattering garbage around the container. “We throw garbage in the container, but rag-pickers take it out and scatter it in order to find recyclable items,” he said.