In many third-world cities, pollution is not accidental — it is cultural, systemic, and deeply rooted in daily life. Sewage canals, once designed to safely carry waste, have been transformed into open garbage dumps. This article examines how poor waste management, weak governance, and harmful urban habits turn cities into pollution sources that damage health, oceans, and future generations.
How City Culture Turns Sewage Canals Into Pollution Sources
Sewage canals are designed to carry waste safely, but in many cities, they have been turned into open garbage dumping sites, harming the environment. For decades, residents have treated these canals as trash dumps, throwing waste into them daily, which has transformed them into solid heaps obstructing water flow. Over time, the flowing water mixed with waste has hardened into solid pathways. People can now walk across them like streets, even though some canals are over 20 feet deep. To carry sewage from nearby streets, small channels are dug into these solid surfaces. Unfortunately, this system now contributes heavily to ocean pollution. The city’s official waste management—dustbins and garbage collection—has become ineffective, showing how deeply this harmful habit has shaped local culture and daily life.
This harmful practice has caused serious environmental damage, but its root cause lies in the city’s culture rather than nature. It reflects the behavior of residents and the failure of an ineffective waste management system, weakened by corruption and neglect. Generations of harmful habits, combined with a lack of responsibility and accountability, have made this destruction normal. Today’s situation is not a natural accident—it is the result of human choices. A failing system and widespread social indifference continue to shape everyday life in the city.
Environmental Damage Caused by Harmful Urban Practices
Air Pollution
Now there is a question: why has the canal not been completely filled?
One may wonder why the canal has not been completely filled. The answer is alarming: the only method used to remove this accumulated waste is burning it. Garbage, including harmful materials such as plastic, is regularly set on fire along the canal. Thick, toxic smoke spreads everywhere, filling streets, homes, and nearby neighborhoods. This polluted air severely affects human health, especially children and the elderly. This single practice alone highlights another layer of environmental and health destruction caused by ineffective waste management.
Flood and waterlogging
During rainy days, these solidified canals fail to carry floodwaters, turning streets, homes, and schools into temporary lakes. Furniture and belongings are ruined, children miss school, and daily life comes to a standstill. Stagnant water becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes and deadly diseases, forcing residents to wade through filthy, contaminated water. Small businesses suffer, and emergency services struggle to reach those in need. This yearly flooding is not a natural disaster—it results directly from human negligence, poor habits, and an ineffective system that prioritizes convenience over responsibility.
Polluted Water Reaching the Ocean
These solidified canals, together with the small channels dug into them, carry polluted water directly into the ocean. Toxic waste from streets and neighborhoods—including plastics and chemicals—flows straight into coastal waters. This harms marine life, affects fisheries, and eventually enters the human food chain, spreading the consequences of human negligence and poor waste management.
The Real Root of This Pollution Culture
The roots of this harmful habit and culture can be traced to provincial and federal governance. Over time, provincial and federal assemblies took control over city management, weakening, delaying, or even dismantling local government systems. Local municipal corporations lost their authority to plan budgets, allocate funds, and manage cities independently. Funds meant for neighborhoods were often held at higher government levels. This concentration of financial control stalled development and eliminated accountability.
In this environment, senior bureaucrats gained power. With local governments weakened, they captured decision-making and controlled city management from within. Elected platforms continued to exist, but their purpose quietly shifted—from serving citizens to managing power and money. While the full role of elected platforms in limiting civil rights is complex, one fact is clear:national and provincial assemblies now restrict local authority while controlling financial resources.
When local governments function properly, funds are spent on sanitation, waste management, infrastructure, and public services. When local governments are denied authority or budgets, these funds are often lost to corruption, inefficiency, and political interests. The result is visible on the streets: unmanaged waste, polluted canals, and a culture of neglect. What appears to be a social or environmental failure is, in reality, a political and structural one.
What Can Be Done
When considering solutions, the principle is simple: whoever provides the funding has the right to decide how it is used. In many third-world countries, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) plays this role. Many may be surprised that millions of citizens depend on IMF loans, even though these nations often have more natural and environmental resources than the donor countries themselves.
The IMF and other international financial institutions should use this leverage not only to monitor spending but also to require structural reforms. Governments should:
- Restore civil rights to local governments
- Rebuild and empower municipal and city administrations
- Recruit local civilians to manage resources in their own communities
- Ensure that funds and resources reach the ground level, where they are needed most
This ensures that funds and resources bypass centralized corruption, directly improving sanitation, waste management, infrastructure, and public services. Over time, this approach can transform the culture of neglect and environmental harm from the ground up.
This is not a temporary campaign or slogan. The solution requires structural reform, local empowerment, and accountability—turning resources into tangible improvements for both people and the environment.