THE noise pollution in Karachi is getting worse. It starts at dawn around 5am and ends only by 4am the next morning. This torture is a regular feature in thickly-populated residential areas across the city. It starts with milk delivery vans that come before the break of dawn, announcing their arrival through high-volume honking. Workers then throw metal containers filled with milk on footpaths, without realising it would create havoc and disturb the sleep of the area residents. After half-an-hour, they come back to collect the empty containers, again throwing them back in the vans, making that horrible noise all over again.

Then a police mobile arrives, blowing high-pitched siren, announcing its arrival. Meanwhile, two-stroke rickshaws start moving around till the school vans arrive, blaring their horns continuously to call the students from their homes.

The next in line are street vendors using loudspeakers without any remorse or shame. This goes on every 15 minutes along with small carts collecting old newspapers, books, etc., till sunset. With people returning home from their workplaces, it is time now for traffic jams that are made worse by encroachments. The end result is a lot of honking — constant honking — and fights between and among the drivers.

This goes on for a couple of hours before the streets transform into ‘food streets’, and all types of people, especially those who have nothing to do at all, while away their time sitting on chairs along footpaths having a cup of tea that lasts an hour or so.

They use coarse and abusive language in high-pitch conversation without caring about the presence of women, children and senior citizens around them. These restaurants remain open till 4am, which leave the city an hour to enjoy peace before the milk delivery vans start arriving at 5am.

The mayor of Karachi and senior provincial ministers of Sindh, since the beginning of the year, have been announcing almost on a daily basis that Karachi would be a ‘model city’.

However, things are getting worse with every passing day instead of improving in the city. Should it not be better for the mayor to deal with such issues on a priority basis, instead of mere announcements for making Karachi a model city?

Munir Rehmati
Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2025