Karachi beaches torture most as civic agencies ignore basic facilities

[LRE]

Karachi beaches torture most as civic agencies ignore basic facilities



Sunday, August 03, 2008
By Waqar Bhatti

Karachi

Possibly in no other city of this size is there a shoreline so under-developed and uncared for as is the case of Karachi’s beaches. The 25-kilometre-long coastal belt of the city which includes Hawkes Bay, Sandspit, Paradise Point and Cape Monze is thronged by Karachiites and visitors to the city alike throughout the year. However, most of them return to their homes highly dissatisfied and disappointed at the lack of basic facilities at the said beaches.

There are no proper areas for people to sit and eat, no toilets and no arrangements for water or for food. The City Government blames the Cantonment Board for this and vice versa. To add insult to injury, a toll tax is duly collected from visitors who come to the beaches in exchange for which there is no facility provided. Another noteworthy absence is that of an adequate number of lifeguards on these beaches.

Two weeks back, five persons drowned at the Hawkes Bay beach. Incidents like these can be avoided if proper rescue teams are deployed. There is a visible absence of life guards even though the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) and volunteers of many other organisations claim that they patrol the beach to help people in case of an emergency.

People with resources and connections have managed to secure huts on the beach, which leased either by the Karachi Port Trust or the CDGK. Some enterprising owners also lease out huts but in most instances as demand surges, most of the visitors have to do with temporary arrangements as huts are not available. The single road track leading up to this particular beach results in yet another chronic problem on holidays. Owing to a lack of any proper parking facility, visitors park their cars on the road which often results in never ending traffic jams.

Commenting on the situation, the UC-8 Nazim of Keamari Town, Iqbal Sanghu believes that it is the responsibility of public representatives and the CDGK not only to protect the people at the beach but to also provide them with recreational facilities. “Hawkes Bay comes under the jurisdiction of my union council but despite having knowledge of problems of visitors and the locals, I’m helpless as we lack funds while the city authorities are showing indifference towards these issues,” he said.

Sanghu claims that clean water is the biggest issue at Hawkes Bay followed by the presence of an adequate number of life guards, cleanliness, toilets and all other facilities that are supposed to be present at a recreational spot. “I moved a resolution in the City Council which was approved by a majority, urging the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) to take over my UC and provide water in it but so far nothing has been done,” he informed.

He said he also believes that life guards should be supervised by a separate department instead of the city fire brigade and added that in this regard, he was going to move a resolution in the council soon. Sanghu claimed that if they are provided with funds from the authorities as well as permission to collect taxes from the visitors, they could not only provide clean water, toilets and maintain cleanliness at the beach but could also transform the beach into a quality recreational spot in the region.

Another UC Nazim, Allah Bux of UC-6 Mauripur, criticised the Manora Cantonment authorities for collecting octroi tax from visitors. According to him, the contract for the tax was awarded at Rs3 million rupees for the current year, of which not a single penny has been spent on the people.

Both the public representatives were of the opinion that the entire coastal belt could be transformed into model beaches, with far better facilities for the people, if only the authorities paid a little attention towards development. On the other hand, regular visitors to Hawkes Bay are fed up of the situation at this recreational spot and claimed that the authorities had nothing to do with the problems being faced by the masses.

“We are coming to this beach for many years but the situation still remains the same here. In fact, conditions are actually deteriorating with each passing day. The beach is getting filthier, while the traffic is turning into another major issue these days,” said one Farhan Ahmed.

Many other visitors at the Hawkes Bay expressed their dissatisfaction over the conditions at the beach and cursed the city authorities for not paying attention towards the well being of the picnickers. “The government can generate huge sums of money from the beach by developing it but they are busy in getting political mileage by carrying out development works only in their areas of political influence,” a female visitor to the Hawkes Bay beach alleged.

It may be noted that an ambitious project was launched by the previous provincial government to turn this area into a massive beach resort and housing complex called “Sugarland City.” This complex would further restrict movement of the general public claimed many NGOs and city leaders. It is not known what the fate of this project has been with the change in government.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=127835