Karachi Port Trust (KPT), which has run up substantial losses, appears to be least concerned of ensuring the availability of basic human necessities for dock workers at the country’s largest seaport under its control.
The situation inside Karachi Port is in a sharp contrast with the claims of the civilian management of KPT and dubious labourer-friendly approach in operation of the country’s largest seaport.
Whereas temperature in June ranges between 35 and 37 degree centigrade ands scorches the load-shedding-hit residents of the port city, sweating laborers working at Karachi Port are finding it hard to have access to clean and cold potable water.
The most congested seaport also lacks in sufficient and proper arrangements for basic human necessities like toilet facilities, water tanks and canteens for the laboring dock workers whose hard work keeps the wheel turning of the country’s 95 percent seaborne trade running from dawn to dusk.
A short survey of Karachi Port would reveal that only six water tanks, four toilets and two canteens and that too ill-maintained exist for thousands of visitors who gather daily at over 20 operational and under construction berths on the East and West wharves of Karachi Port to earn their livelihood in different capacities. At East Wharves there are only 4 water tanks placed at berths number 1, 4, 12 and 16, while only 2 are there at the West Wharves on berths number 21 and 25. The water tanks can often be found unclean and flooded around by dirty sewage water. There have also been complaints that the stray dogs, which can be found sufficiently at the port, also lap water from valves of the same tanks.
“We have a small plastic-made water tank at berth number 12 for hundreds of, at least 350, laborers working at this ship,” complained a stevedore loading 32,400 tons of exportable wheat on M/v Majestic at East Wharves.
The docker said while a sharp rise in temperatures made work conditions for the laborers tougher, the KPT officials were not supplying them with ice on time. “KPT employees put ice in the water tanks not before 11am while work for the dayshift starts early in the morning at 7am,” claimed the worker.
“They (KPT employees) sit back in their offices, play cards and fill tanks with the ice at their convenience in mid of the scorching day,” the docker went on. Moreover, the most congested port carries only four lavatories, two each at the East and West wharves for a host of dock workers. “A call from the nature at port would make you walk for minutes to reach a toilet that, most of the time, lies far away from the berth you are working on,” another port worker told Pakistan Today. And that too comes with a cost. A docker claims that the “jamadars” sitting outside the toilets demand five rupees from every visitor and, when questioned, claimed that the KPT was paying them only Rs3,500 a month for cleaning the bathrooms, which, the port workers say, remain stinky and dirty most of the time.
“Mostly the water remains unavailable in the toilets, something that naturally leads to dirtiness,” said the docker. Another stevedore told Pakistan Today that even of the 4 restrooms one, at berth number 18, is dedicated for the Port Security Force (PSF) personnel.
Furthermore, the number of canteens at the two wharves of the Karachi harbour stands at two, one each at berth numbers 16 and 19. A docker complained that while the KPT employees were being served meals at subsidised rates at the congested food outlets, the price and quality of food for them were questionable. The scarcity or unavailability of these basic human needs, particularly the laborers’ demand for cold water during the sizzling summer, lead intermittently to the stoppage of cargo handling at the most busiest port.
Tuesday saw the latest such occurrence when the laborers loading wheat on M/v Majestic stopped working in their demand for cold water which was unavailable for a belated supply of ice by the KPT.
The cargo handling remained suspended for half an hour, between 11am and 11:30am, which would cost the concerned stevedoring firm, Friends Corporation Limited, double in terms of detention. The work was resumed not until the stevedoring company arranged the ice by its own to get the protesting dockers back to work.
“During summer it is the matter of routine for laborers to stop cargo handling in protest for not being provided with cold drinking water,” said eyewitnesses to the Tuesday’s row at berth number 11/12.
Such disputes between the laborers and foremen of the stevedoring companies are more frequent during dayshifts of the summer season when the heat remains on its peak, the eyewitnesses said.
The stevedores say that the laborers dispute over cold water more frequently at the ships handling wheat, cement, rice or any other cargo that requires hard work. Interruptions for whatsoever reason in the cargo handling often delay timely loading or discharging of the visiting vessels that not only inflict heavy demurrages upon the consignees but also cause traffic congestion at the port.
The KPT’s online shipping intelligence report shows that the wheat ship, M/v Majestic, had anchored at Karachi Port over a week ago on June 11 and still has to intake 10,089 tons of cargo. While normally a ship of this size takes not more than 3 to 4 days to load 32,000 tons cargo and sell off.
