KARACHI: Experts have raised serious concern over the worsening conditions at Clifton beach and have urged the public to avoid venturing into its polluted water and letting children play on its contaminated soil until discharge of untreated sewage into the sea was stopped and sanitation at the beach improved.

They were sharing their worries with Dawn over the risks Clifton beach posed to public health.

An easily accessible and inexpensive recreational source for most Karachiites, Clifton beach is still crowded even after Eid, attracting a large number of families every afternoon.

‘I was shocked to see heaps of garbage and open discharge of untreated sewage into the sea from a drain near a restaurant’

Ignorant of the risks heavily polluted coastal water poses to their health, families, particularly children, are seen enjoying themselves in the seawater constantly getting polluted with raw sewage discharged into the sea.

“People, especially children, getting in contact with contaminated soil and water are very vulnerable to all sorts of infections — infections of the eye, skin, respiratory tract, ear, throat etc. They can also fall ill with gastroenteritis if contaminated water goes into their stomach,” said Dr Mirza Ali Azhar, an executive member of the Pakistan Medical Association.

The only precaution beach visitors could take was to avoid venturing into the seawater and having contact with its contaminated soil, he added.

“If you look around, you will realise that our entire food chain has gotten contaminated because we have miserably failed to manage our waste,” he further said, regretting that the beach which should be a place for healthy recreation now posed a serious risk to public health.

Sharing her observations, Dr Nuzhat Khan, a senior scientific officer at the National Institute of Oceanography, who recently visited Clifton beach, said: “I went there this Sunday and was shocked to see heaps of garbage and open discharge of untreated sewage into the sea from a drain near a restaurant. Hordes of people were there who seemed oblivious to this situation. I couldn’t see any lifeguard or ambulance that could provide emergency help.”

Dr Khan, who is also engaged in a coastal areas’ survey, lamented that Clifton beach, which was the only source of entertainment, especially for low-income people in the city, had not only lost its serenity but posed a great risk to public health.

“Beach conditions have deteriorated in recent years when the authorities concerned allowed the establishment of commercial projects there without caring to see whether they have a proper waste disposal system,” she said, adding that the authorities should find a way to treat the waste before it was discharged into the sea.

While much of the waste of the city is being dumped into the sea, the sewage directly polluting Clifton beach is discharged through three drains. The matter has been highlighted many times in the media and is currently being pursued by the Supreme Court.

Dr Khan also referred to last year’s massive flushing of sewage on the beach, which the media erroneously reported as ‘oil slick’, and said it was yet another indicator calling for urgent steps for proper waste disposal.

“There was no sign of an oil slick. In fact, it was sewage that seemed to be clogged in a drain and was flushed out due to rain,” she said, adding that pollution seriously affected the whole coast from the Korangi Fish Harbour to Port Qasim.

A visit to the Clifton beach on Friday showed that liquid waste was being discharged from only one drain. A large section of the beach was found clean but there were many spots littered with solid waste.

CBC ‘corrective’ measures

“We have closed down two out of three drains. The Defence Housing Authority plans to set up a waste treatment plant by August next year, which will help close down the last functional drain,” said Ghulam Mohammad Abro, the deputy chief executive officer at the Clifton Cantonment Board (CBC).

Asked about the logic behind keeping one drain operational since waste from this drain would continue to pollute the beach and coastal waters, he said: “Now the discharged waste would have no ‘direct contact’ with the public as this place (where the drain is located) is not accessible to the public. It’s an ad-hoc arrangement and the solution obviously is a waste treatment plant.”

He claimed that the beach presented a cleaner look and there was a team engaged in patrolling and ready to do emergency rescue operation. “Out of a 40-plus staff, we have 20 lifeguards. The fact that there was no incident of drowning during Eid holidays [at Clifton beach] indicates our staff’s efficiency.”

Disagreeing with Mr Abro’s argument, Dr Asif Inam heading the NIO said that keeping one drain operational meant polluting the whole area.

“It’s flowing water. You can’t restrict pollution to one point. Contaminants will obviously flow along the sea currents and affect the whole area,” he said, adding that visitors contracting germs from the area might have no clue to their infection as it often took time to show symptoms.

He regretted that parts of the beach where sewage discharge points were located spread foul smell, which should have never been a part of a beach experience.

Marine life destruction

Umair Shahid of the World Wide Fund for Nature said that the high level of pollution at Clifton beach had destroyed all signs of marine life there.

“It’s our failure to manage land-based waste causing destruction of marine ecosystem and contaminating food chain. There is hardly any beach left in Pakistan where we don’t find plastic refuse,” he said, emphasising the need for creating awareness and taking community-based measures to tackle waste management issue.

He expressed serious concern over the increasing plastic pollution which, he said, had become a major environmental problem, risking human survival the world over.

“Plastic takes hundreds of years to break down. If plastic reaches the ocean, it is very difficult or impossible to recover. It decomposes into micro-plastic particles that attract other pollutants, and are easily consumed by sea creatures. It damages the ecosystem and contaminates the whole food chain,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2018