Chitral streets teem with garbage, where is TMA

Report Zahiruddin, Chitral

Chitral city is teeming with heaps of garbage, as the tehsil municipal administration (TMA) has not cleared these, for the last one year, residents here said.

Residents of the area said while talking to this scribe said that the roads and open spaces were littered with waste, which had defaced the city. They said that this situation could also lead to outbreak of different diseases. They complained that few years ago, Chitral was known for its clean surroundings and atmosphere, but over the last few years, it had changed for the worst.

The residents alleged that the TMA authorities were totally indifferent to its basic duty of maintaining cleanliness in the city.

They said that most of the people had directed their houses sewage lines into the water of the river and the streams flowing in the city. They said that the riverbed and the banks of the streams had become the dumping sites of filth produce of the city and in the summer season, they stink so strong that one cannot pass by easily.

They said that the butchers and the hotel owners throw their waste into the stream running across the city, where tons of garbage had accumulated now beside the Bazaar Bridge.

They said that in the absence of public latrines, the people were forced to urinate in the open space, which further worsens the situation. The residents said that the poor situation of sanitation gave a bad impression of the city to the tourists.

They said that the Chew Bridge area, which gave a magnificent view of the peak of Trichmir and was a famous picnic spot, had become the dirtiest place in the city.

The residents complained that due to the negligence of the TMA, all the hotel owners throw their garbage into the bank of River Chitral at Chew. The oil wastes of the motor workshops on the other side of the Chew Bridge, is also not checked by the TMA.

One Shokhor Khan, a shopkeeper in his eighties, remembered with great nostalgia the days when the city was spotless, neat and tidy during the days of the former princely state.

When the Tehsil Nazim, Sartaj Ahmed Khan was contacted, he said that lack of resources was the main obstacle in keeping the city clean. He admitted that solid wastes had not been disposed of since long.

Sartaj Ahmed said that TMA Chitral had only one tractor-trolley to remove the garbage from different localities of the city and had requested the provincial government for five more tractors trolleys.