KARACHI: Pakistan’s largest city Karachi is under the grip of multifarious pollutions due to lack of government’s environment-friendly policies. The air, marine and noise pollutions are rising with each passing day as there is no proper check and balance system.
The city has turned one of the most polluted cities of the country where air, marine and noise pollutions have risen to alarming levels, affecting people’s health. The city is hit by four major types of pollutions – air, water, noise and marine pollutions, which give birth to other issues in the city.
Air is polluted due to the release of smoke, chemicals, and unhygienic particles into the atmosphere. The air of Karachi is highly polluted due to automobiles’ smoke emitted by rickshaws, cars, bikes, buses, other vehicles, burning of garbage, oven fires and industrial emissions. The air is also massively polluted by liquefied petroleum gas released from automobiles and gaseous pollutants like carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, chloro-fluoro-carbon and nitrogen oxide.
Air is required to breathe and if air is polluted, then how could a person live a long and healthy life? The air pollution also causes diseases like asthma, bronchitis, lung and skin ailments.
The marine pollution in Karachi has also badly affected fish and prawn production. The sea water has turned poisonous along the city coast and as a result fish and prawn have died, while mangrove forest has also been affected due to this pollution.
Karachi’s coastline stretches over 135 km, which is now extremely polluted due to the discharge of industrial waste, sewerage and garbage in the area which causes huge loss to marine life. Apart from this, Karachi doesn’t even have clean tap water.
In many areas, piped water mixes with drain-water. Water is the basic necessity of human life but unfortunately, the residents of Karachi don’t have access to it and that is the main reason that many citizens face stomach, kidney and skin diseases.
Last but not the least Karachi also faces noise pollution, which is caused by industrial, transport, human and mechanical workshop activities. The city has a large population and transport system which increases noise pollution to an extreme level.
The noise pollution causes high blood pressure, depression, severe headache and anxiety among people in the city.
As a megacity of Pakistan, Karachi needs effective policies from the government but unfortunately, it seems heart-wrenching and all we can see is a mismanaged administration in the city. In Karachi, there is no proper way of disposing of garbage to landfill sites on a regular basis as heaps of garbage can be seen everywhere.
It also lacks enough trees which can help absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The government needs to improve its environmental policies to reduce the burden of pollution on the residents of Karachi.
