Friday, August 17, 2012

Shershah The Hub.

Karachi is the most populous city of Pakistan and the third most populous city in the world. It is the financial centre of Pakistan . Port Qasim and Karachi Port connects Pakistan to the rest of the World as it handles 90% of external trade of Pakistan. Being close to the port has made some of the sites in Karachi one of the largest dumping ewaste sites in Pakistan.  Shershah is one of them.

When I was there first time in 2011, I thought my research could start and end there. I didn't need to go anywhere else. If only life could be that simple. Shershah is not only the hub for ewaste recycling and dumping but most of this market is controlled by a mafia. My husband had an idea that underworld activities took place in Shershah so he decided he would accompany me as he would not want me to go such a place alone.

The prices of e-waste business are controlled by the mafia. Prices of  gold and silver are always on a rise. Controlling the prices of ewaste  ensures good profit margins for them on extraction.

Mafia leaders or members are commonly referred as "bhai" ( brother) in Karachi. I was informed the bhai controlled this market was once a scrapper and he worked hard and learnt the art of precious metal extraction and later became the most powerful man in this area. As crazy as it may sounds, in my naivety on hearing how informative this person might be I planned on meeting him. Bhai means brother and is also commonly used for someone whom you would like to show respect. It didn't occur to me once that it could be mafia leader. On hearing about him from so many scrappers I asked one of the scrapper to lead me to where I could find him. He asked me if really was serious about meeting him and I said yes. He took us to a maze of small streets in the a notoriousarea, the area is already known for gang wars, at a end of a street the bhai lived. The navigator asked me to go on my own as he said he wouldn't want him to know that he led me to his place. Even now I did not realize what was happening. I walked to his house which had very high walls with barbed wires and a huge steel gate. It was impossible to see inside. It was the biggest and most fortified house of the area, which mostly had very small houses. This is when my husband told me we needed to leave as something was wrong. I was still convinced to meet  him (now that I think of it it makes me realize how silly I was). I asked the guard of this house if we could meet the bhai. He told us he was out of the country, in disappointment we turned around. After this we were followed through out the time we were in Shershah and were asked several times as to what was our purpose to meet bhai, all the information was communicated back on a phone. It was then when we realized it was time to go.

Before we left, I decided to make a quick round of the huge godown(storage places) where tons and tons of ewaste was being recycled. This place was filled with the smell of burning plastic. small children were digging through heaps of waste to find something of value. While some sat burning old boards on high flame. A man stood next to a huge acid baths and was waiting for the computer ICs to melt and help him get what was of value.

This is only one of the godowns and there were several of them in Shershah

Piles of ewaste that will be recycled.

Acid baths after use they are thrown in to the near by River Lyari or is just spilled over the ground where it s lying.

Electrolysis being carried out to extract copper.



Sacks of ewaste which will be recycled later on.

More ewaste.

Some workers taking a tea break

A boy preparing boards to burn at a high flame.

While I was there I was taken to one workshop where plastic was being converted to pellets for recycling. Children and men were involved in handling used syringes with bare hands.