“How Marble Processing Is Polluting Karachi Neighbourhoods”, 7 November 2018

A powdery white dust covers everything in a working-class locality on Karachi’s Manghopir Road…The noise is also deafening…

Marble…is cut, grinded, finished and polished into various objects and artefacts at hundreds of small workshops scattered in many low-income neighbourhoods...

The workshop[‘]s… owners and local residents…end up dumping… [the dust] in nearby empty lots, along local roads and… in…Lyari river... The wind eventually brings most of it back …

 [A survey conducted by a local doctor] indicate[s] that 70-80% of the local population suffers from respiratory diseases. Inhaling marble dust…can also cause eye and nose allergies among children. It can create kidney-related problems too…Some local residents have tried to get the workshops closed down …

Marble…slabs are cut with electric saws which have inbuilt water sprinklers to keep marble dust from flying off into the atmosphere. The problem starts with smaller cutters, grinders and other finishing tools that are operated without using water...

The industrial scale saws at these factories use water sprinklers... Factory owners outsource the task to tanker operators…The sludge is often found dumped on empty lots and next to rainwater drains... As it becomes dry… it is blown into the atmosphere by the wind.

None of the.. workers [are] wearing a mask, using goggles or putting on a noise muffler to protect his face, eyes and ears... A large part of the marble dust produced inside the workshop, thus, stays indoors…The workers also get no medical coverage, no compensation for injuries and no paid leaves…

The very existence of highly polluted work environments of marble processing workshops and factories and the deplorable disposal of their waste show that the [Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA)] has failed to do its job. Cases were filed against 27 factory owners that led to the imposition of a fine of 7,000 rupees on each of them...