IDEALIZING QUETTA
Quetta is the provincial capital of Balochistan and 9th largest city of
Pakistan. The city is known as the fruit garden of Pakistan, due to the numerous
fruit orchards in and around it. The immediate area has long been one of
pastures and mountains, with varied plants and animals relative to the dry
plains to the west. Quetta is at an average elevation of 1,680 meters (5,510
feet) above sea level, making it Pakistan's only high-altitude major city. The
population of the city is estimated to be approximately two million.
While idealizing Quetta it is necessary to know the history of the city ,as it
as been known as ‘Little Paris’ during British Raj, due to its cleanliness,
pleasant weather and scenic beauty. Today, thanks to gross mismanagement and
unchecked urbanization and settlement of Afghan immigrants, Quetta is one of the
most polluted cities of Pakistan. Initially, It was planned to accommodate
100,000 people by the British Raj. Today, almost 140 years after its
establishment, Quetta is home to approximately 3 million people. Accommodating
30 times more people than its capacity has taken its toll on the city and a lot
of municipal problems have surfaced. Compounding those problems is the gross
mismanagement of successive provincial governments and incompetent bureaucrats.
The capital of Balochistan faces a plethora of problems, the most serious of
which is water shortage. Due to a lack of planning and unchecked increases in
tube wells, the water level in Quetta has fallen. Water and Sanitation Authority
(WASA) - the body which supplies water to the city, shall be developed, so as to
be able to coup up the water requirements of the masses as a whole. Otherwise,
According to experts, problems of water shortage will exacerbate in the future.
Experts maintain that if no concrete action is taken then the people of Quetta
might even be compelled to migrate due to water scarcity. Furthermore, Poorly
managed traffic system is another problem in Quetta city. There is absolutely no
system of traffic in the city. There is not a single traffic signal in the
entire city and traffic jams are a common occurrence. The existing network of
roads in Quetta can’t accommodate the increasing load of vehicles and there is
no traffic engineering and planning department in the city. In the near future,
it would be a herculean task for common residents of Quetta to even drive a few
kilometers on the roads of Quetta. Adding to the problems is the construction of
commercial plazas and hospitals in busy areas in complete violation of the
building code and town planning rules. It would be in best ever favor of the
residents of the city if the Government decides to take immediate measure in
controlling the rapidly increasing traffic and plan a best traffic control
system for city. Moreover, since, Quetta lies on the main earthquake belt and it
has been declared not safe to build above five stories buildings, but it is on
the contrary and large buildings are being built up against the Government
orders, which are creating a great danger in the safety and security of the
people of the city. The development authorities in the city must take
responsibility of ensuring that in future no such buildings are developed that
are violating the Government orders and devise a plan in countering the existing
defaulters. Thus, providing a better and secure environment in case of any
disaster. Now, the major issue of garbage control in the city is very poor , you
can easily find dumps of garbage across the roads throughout the city , which
result in foul smell and provide excellent breeding grounds for malaria and
other diseases. The Municipal department has tried in controlling the dumps by
building small open quarters so as to provide a visible cover. But, still the
problem of providing breeding ground exists. Therefore, the Municipal Committee
should first take a serious step in taking the garbage from the city and dumping
it far away from the city, thus , providing a fresh and clean environment. The
use of polythene bags should be banned in the city, as its decomposition life is
far more than the brown bags. Therefore, such steps should be taken to ban
polythene bags and the use of brown bags should be publicized and the people
should aware about the benefits of using brown bags over polythene.
These were just few of the many things that may help in idealizing my city
Quetta in becoming once again the ‘Little Paris’ of Pakistan and a heaven for
the inhabitants for the people of Balochistan.