Karachi: The production, sale, and use of polythene shopping bags within the limits of Karachi from June 15, to save the city’s environment and its drainage system from collapse in the upcoming monsoon.
The ban is being imposed in accordance with the Sindh Local Government Act-2013. The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) adopted the resolution to impose a complete ban on polythene bags within the municipal limits of the city.
Karachi’s Administrator, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, consulted the city’s Commissioner and Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) before the adoption of the resolution.
The Sindh government’s Planning and Development Department also wrote to Karachi’s municipality and advised it to impose such the ban.
Karachi’s Commissioner will join hands with the KMC and SSWMB to take punitive action against the manufacturing, sale, and consumption of polythene bags.
A statement issued by the KMC lamented that citizens, in general, had adopted the unchecked practice of getting a polythene shopping bag from the retailer even if they spent very few rupees to purchase a product.
The polythene bag cannot be safely disposed of as burning the plastic generates toxic fumes that are harmful for the environment. The plastic bags also add to the municipal waste in the city and often choke its sewerage and drainage systems.
Karachi’s Administrator said the drive was on to carry out the de-silting of storm water drains of the city to save it from urban flooding while at the same time it was imperative that citizens should cooperate with the city’s municipality to observe the ban on the polythene bags.
He said that repeated analyses had proved that after solid waste plastic waste had emerged as the biggest threat to the drainage system of the city.
He advised the citizens to use fabric bags to carry grocery items and other products to avoid using the plastic bags.
