A Newspaper Man Is Leading The Struggle For A Cleaner, Greener Takht-i-Bahi

A Newspaper Man Is Leading The Struggle For A Cleaner, Greener Takht-i-Bahi
An eco-friendly newspaper vendor Mohammad Javed collects paper at the edge of the aisle in Takht-i-Bahi Bazaar. Every morning, he sells newspapers in front of the Takht-i-Bahi police station.

At the spot where Muhammad Mohammad Javed sells newspapers, the scene is totally different from other sites of Takht-i-Bahi Bazaar. The flowers that grow here add to the beauty of the place.

Mohammad Javed goes to a number of offices in the early hours of the morning to distribute newspapers. He comes back and parks the newspaper stall on his bike in front of Takht-i-Bahi Police Station. All this while, he also collects environmentally harmful items and disposes of them. "A human is the one who keeps their environment clean," he says.

He also sells newspapers and keeps the colours of his surroundings alive. Locals appreciate Mohammad Javed's efforts and his love for flowers and beautiful surroundings. Ihsan Khan, a regular customer of Javed's stall, says: “Every morning, walking through this specific area gives one a feeling of freshness.”

According to Dr Wagma Shams, a public health expert serving as a child specialist in Mardan Medical Complex (MMC), 40 percent of the deaths in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are caused annually by water-borne diseases. She says that contaminated water was also responsible for 40 percent of deaths amongst children of less than five years of age. “People don’t care about the cleanliness of water,” she notes.

She adds that according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the polio virus has been detected from water in the Kalpanay Mardan region.

Local journalist Javeed Alam speaks to Naya Daur Media on the issue of pollution and says that if local authorities and the general public – people such as Mohammad Javed – were to help promote a more clean environment, it would contribute to reducing pollution-related diseases among hte population.

The author is a Peshawar-based journalist and currently working as a reporter and editor with The Frontier Post. He can be reached at jamalsafi986@gmail.com