| 25 September 2004 | Saturday | 09 Shaban 1425 |
An efficient rail system
Flawed flyovers
The Indus River System Authority has warned that the country will face a 37 per cent shortage in irrigation water during the upcoming Rabi season. This should be cause for serious concern because, in the absence of an agreed water sharing formula among the provinces, a shortfall this big will add to the temper and heat when it comes to dealing with the problem of scarcity.
Irsa has time and again failed to reach a consensus among the provinces on sharing shortages. In fact, it has not been able to evolve an agreed formula since the 1992 inter-provincial water accord. That accord itself has been invoked and revoked by turns depending on the given exigencies ever since.
The water body, for all practical purposes, has become a bickering forum for the provinces. The Irsa meeting being held today to discuss water shortage during the Rabi season promises to be no different.
If the past is any guide, the provinces, even if they arrive at a consensus in the course of an Irsa meeting, start disowning it after a few days. This so far has been the norm rather than an exception, as a consensus-based sharing formula has continued to prove elusive.
What then is the solution of the - now chronic - water shortages in the Indus river system, year after year? For one thing, there is a dire need for the provinces to realize that merely quarrelling over the issue can only complicate matters.
In fact, continuous finger-pointing and grandstanding by the provinces has distracted them from concentrating on working out a sensible scarcity-sharing formula. This has also prevented the provincial governments from taking the necessary steps to streamline their respective irrigation systems so as to avoid wastage of the scarce water that does become available to them.
Water losses through seepage, which is due to poorly maintained canal systems and rustic head works, account for a whopping 30 per cent a year. The country can ill-afford to lose this high a percentage of its precious water resources.
On the other hand, the provinces' argument that they lack the necessary financial resources needed to overhaul their respective irrigation systems is not without substance.
While the federal government needs to keep up the pressure on Irsa and on the provincial governments to evolve a sharing mechanism that everyone can live with, it would also have to do substantially more to help the provinces plug leakage.
The provision of some Rs200 million by the federal government in this year's budget for the purpose is too small, considering the scale of the fresh lining of the canal systems involved.
Irrigation is one crucial sector that cannot be neglected and which must claim due priority in the scheme of economic planners. Given the climatic changes that have prolonged the on-going dry spell, coupled with the increase in population in each successive year, Pakistan is tipped to join an emerging group of impoverished and 'water scarce' countries by 2025 if proper planning is not done now to avoid a catastrophic situation.
Again, the federal government, and not so much those of the provinces, will have to take up the challenge. Islamabad would do well to start working towards evolving a national water scarcity management strategy to avert disaster. We simply cannot rely on nature for this.
An efficient rail system
The proposal for converting Pakistan Railways into a corporation could prove a turning point in the fortunes of this vital public sector organization whose potential has largely remained under-utilized.
It is obvious that more needs to be done to improve the overall performance of the railway system so that it can offer good and efficient service to the public.
Quick and cheap bus services as well as competitive airfares have driven a substantial number of train travellers to other modes of transport. Similarly, road transport is preferred for transporting bulk cargo despite the obvious advantage of lower freight rates that the railway offers.
PR has been unable to live up to the public's expectations in terms of quality and efficiency of service. Trains have to run on time and the facilities provided to passengers, starting from reservations to cleanliness of compartments and quality of foodstuffs offered, need to be improved.
Corruption is a big drain on the PR's revenue earnings. While reservations have been computerized for main lines, there are many who still abuse the system to make money on the side.
This practice needs to be checked. It is a fact that the railways suffers from severe financial deficits as a result of poor performance in the past. The organization has an overdraft burden exceeding Rs20 billion with the government. While earnings from passenger traffic rose from Rs6.2 billion in 2002 to nine billion rupees in 2003, freight earnings dropped from Rs4.6 billion to Rs4.1 billion in the same period.
The rise in passenger earnings has come largely from increased fares while the drop in the freight revenue is due to a decrease in freight rates. In other words, the management has had little success in attracting more business, be it passenger or freight, in the past few years.
At present, with 96,000 employees working for PR, no wonder the organization is in financial straits. An autonomous corporation may be able to tackle these problems more effectively and make the system more efficient than it has been for a long time, but a greater public debate is needed on the issue.
Flawed flyovers
The partial closure of Karachi's Liaquatabad flyover is ample proof of the corruption that plagues development work in the country's commercial capital. Completed five years behind schedule, sections of the flyover developed cracks just three years after its inauguration.
The Karachi city government's monitoring committee, probing the matter, has said that while there is no problem with the design, the quality of the concrete used was substandard.
Immediate repair work on the damaged portion and a comprehensive survey of all of Karachi's bridges have been recommended. Both suggestions should be urgently implemented by the authorities.
A significant percentage of Karachi's road networks gets damaged every year, mainly because of poor workmanship and substandard material used in building them. The damage that occurs as a result of such factors is often greater compared to the age of the road or structure involved.
The obvious reason why this happens is that those who build the roads and bridges more often than not tend to use substandard material. So, for the monitoring committee to say that the quality of concrete used in the Liaquatabad flyover was shoddy is not exactly a sensational discovery.
In fact, a few months ago, craters developed on the surface of another major flyover, which was also constructed very recently. Then a few days ago, the main bridge on Sharea Faisal also developed cracks. Committees of experts will only tell us the obvious and perhaps give worthy suggestions. But we have heard all of this before. The city government needs to act decisively against contractors who use substandard material because they are in league with the corrupt officials of the concerned agency.
Such contractors should be blacklisted and a start can be made with this particular case. Also, the possibility of filing cases of criminal negligence or breach of contract should be seriously considered. And how is that considering so many cases of cracks and holes developing in some of the newly built bridges, there is no efficient system of monitoring and evaluation of such structures at various stages of their construction to ensure quality of material and efficiency of workmanship?