The Dustbin Crisis

Cleanliness plays an important role in our society and no one can deny its significance. One main issue that we face in our society today is that people are not very fond of following the cleaning ethics. Being a Muslim it is imperative on all of us to ensure
that we keep our houses, streets, work places clean at all times.

Our beloved prophet (PBUH) stated to all the Muslims across the world. He said, “Cleanliness is half of your religion.” It has been observed that most of us are very concerned about keeping our homes and personal properties clean but we give half of our
religion away pretty easily on public places.

Problem comes when we exclude the streets and parks from our houses. People would literally take the garbage out of their dustbins and throw them on the streets or empty lots. A fast moving car on the streets of Lahore often gives a disturbing view of the
owner lowering the mirror and throwing an empty bottle of their favourite drink right on the street.

It will be totally unfair to blame the rider on such case as he has never been fined or penalised for such an act since he was a kid. He was never taught by any one in his school about the importance of cleanliness.

Most of us wonder what happens to our fellow citizens when they visit abroad.  Someone who has never heard of the term dumping the waste properly begins to behave like cleanliness really is the part of his faith.

There are two main reasons for such reaction by our nationals. First of all we do not have enough dustbins in our streets. Finding a dustbin in the time of need is a real quest in our part of the world.

There is another reason why our compatriots follow the cleanliness code of conduct in foreign soil. Heavy fines are in place for someone who fails to follow the cleanliness ethics in all the western countries. So that, even if someone missed out the school
on the day cleanliness was taught he will still be worried about the money going out of his pocket. 

You are in danger of receiving a fine of up to $1000 for littering in California, that is right a total of One Thousand US dollars. For those who does not understand the sensitivity of cleanliness the conversion comes out to be around PKR 87,000/-

You will find a trash can after every 25 yards in all the developed cities and it is quite difficult to miss one if you are not in the mood to play with the system deliberately. The situation is totally opposite in our streets. For instance if we talk about
Lahore the main roads like the Jail Road, The Mall, Ferozpur Road and The Canal Bank Road does not gives you any option of getting rid of your wastes.  The situation is only worst as we move towards the smallest cities of our country.

Either you take it all the way with you to your home and use your dustbin or throw them anywhere suitable during your journey is totally up to you. The second option however is the main reason why our cities are not as clean as we want them to be.

Taking the litter along and to bin it properly is the correct choice as it gives you the chance to do your bit in achieving the first half of your religion. Waste left on the streets is the main reason for many diseases and the ‘Killer Dangue’ is one of
them.

Most of the housing societies in Lahore do not have any concept of the waste bins and only the Porsche areas such as DHA are availing this facility. Every house in the Defence Housing Authority Lahore has a personal dustbin and the rubbish is removed regularly.

Even if there are any dustbins present on the specified areas, the system to gather and take the garbage to the particular areas is ridiculous. The Open dump trucks are used to carry the garbage to the disposal areas. Those trucks shall be covered from top
in order to ensure they do not leave a trail of mess behind them.

Pakistan is the sixth largest country in the world and the litter we produce is not any less. The first step towards a cleaner Pakistan is to have more dustbins locally.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=1766

Posted by Ahmed Babar on Oct 27 2011. Filed under Pakistan, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry