Patients coming for emergency treatment at public hospitals because of gastro and gastroenteritis have reached an alarming number of 200 to 250 per day. This rise is largely because of the unhygienic food and coloured drinks business that has flourished in the city, while concerned authorities have failed to control this serious issue.
The arrival of summer has increased the seriousness of this problem as greater stalls of coloured beverages are seen in the city. In addition, stalls of cut fruits are visible at almost all van stops, markets and streets. These vendors are making money by selling items unprotected from flies and dust. Vendors do not bother to provide clean food as plenty of flies are seen on utensils and cut fruits.
At one such stall at Karachi Company, a market for lower middle class people, a large number of people were taking cut fruits despite the massive number of flies and also the surrounding dust. Ramzan Saeed, a roadside vendor at Abpara market, said that it was extremely difficult to control for flies at an open place, adding that he makes use of a hand fan but it was not very helpful.
It was also observed that he cleaned all plates in the only water tub he had. Majority know that these food items are dangerous for health, but do not abstain from its use. Hungry people, especially at lunch time, are left with no choice but to eat these exposed-to-dust food items. Cheapness of such unhealthy food also increases its usage.
Fida hussain, a taxi driver, eating fruit from a road side vendor at Bhara Kau bus stop told Pakistan Today that “I am aware that this food is unhealthy. But hunger leaves me with no other option but to eat such food.” When contacted, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) spokesperson Dr Waseem Khawaja told Pakistan Today that around 200 to 250 patients, complaining for gastro and gastroenteritis, visit PIMS emergency ward daily.
He believed that unhealthy food and water were primary reasons for this problem. “Most of these vendors don not wash the fruit properly, which leads to stomach diseases like cholera,” he maintained.