Youngsters in bid to clean Karachi streets

KARACHI: Tired of the sight of trash strewn across the roads and losing faith in the authorities, 60 young individuals have decided to take ownership of their city and launched a cleanliness campaign, ‘Saaf Karachi [Clean Karachi]’.

Every Sunday, the group meets to pick and choose an area after proper research, collect donations from residents, bring in the equipment and start cleaning the chosen area, which takes three to five hours.

The group includes Zain Aquil, 25, an employee of a software house, a textile design student Suha Abbas, 20, Delhi College student Shaikh Abdullah, 20, and Greenwich University student Danish Shah, 22.

The initiative was launched on January 10 this year and the group met to clean the median strip from Landi Kotal Chowrangi to Five Star Chowrangi, North Nazimabad.

“Initially, we cleaned the litter from just the median strip,” said Aquil. However, the next day the median strip was again filled with garbage as the area is teemed with eateries, he claimed. “The next week, we again collected donations and cleaned the area and placed litter bins,” he said, adding that they were assured by District Municipal Corporation’s (DMC) officer, Nadeem, that the trash from the bin will be picked up daily.

Every Sunday morning, the team collects donations from passing cars and residents of the chosen area. Then, they hire a Suzuki pickup and load it with the collected trash.

Speaking about collecting donations, Suha said when residents see us cleaning, they are willing to give more.

“As a girl I have never faced any problem cleaning the roads of my city,” she pointed out, adding that peoples’ attitudes encourage her.

Sometimes they also join us, she added.