| 06 November 2004 | Saturday | 22 Ramazan 1425 |
Karachi's traffic deaths
Curse of bonded labour
The formation of the National Water Council as the top-most body to take decisions on critical water related issues is a step in the right direction. Under the national water policy, which was approved in principle by the government this week, the National Water Council will be headed by the prime minister and will have the chief ministers of all the provinces as members in addition to other ministers and government officials.
The idea is that the NWC will take decisions about sharing water, both in time of surplus and scarcity, as these are issues on which there has been no consensus among the provinces so far.
Till now, the government approach has been to postpone the issues involving serious disagreements among the provinces insted of insisting on reconciliation through give and take.
The same approach has been adopted for equally vital issues like resource distribution under the NFC. One hopes the NWC will help break this logjam over water sharing.
It has been evident for some time that the country now faces a drought-like situation in many parts. This has been brought about by lower than usual rainfall this year as well as slower melting of glaciers up in the mountain regions.
The low supply of water in the rivers and the canal system has affected agriculture and needs to be tackled on a priority basis in a manner that does not lead to bad blood among the provinces.
This would be the first challenge before the NWC as it tries to allocate water resources and ensures that they are distributed in a manner agreed upon. The havoc wrought by sea water moving upward in lower Sindh needs to be addressed.
Large tracts of land have been rendered barren by the widespread problem of salinity and water-logging triggered by the weak flow in the Indus. In addition, the change in the balance of water composition has also put the environmental system in the delta at risk.
This in turn will affect sea life and needs to be tackled as part of the water policy. The reduced supply has caused a scarcity that needs to be shared judiciously amongst the provinces.
The United Nations has warned that Pakistan is fast approaching the critical threshold of chronic water shortage. According to it, of particular concern is the over-exploitation of ground water in Pakistan and its wastage. This is an area in which much more needs to be done.
Freshwater is a precious commodity and its supply, distribution and consumption have to be carefully planned and monitored. Water losses have to be curtailed. In this, the plan to spend up to two billion rupees on lining the water channels is a welcome move.
This will help reduce water losses through seepage and will also improve availability. This needs to be followed up with efforts to cut wastage in both rural and urban areas. Water distribution systems in cities are in need of major repair and renovation.
This has to be done to eliminate water leakages. Water thefts in both rural and urban areas also need to be checked. Finally, to make the most of the water resources, storage capacities, mainly in the form of lakes, should be built across the country.
Such lakes help store up a portion of the water that flows into the sea during floods when there is an excess of water. If all this is done on a priority basis, the problem of shortage of water will be reduced to a large extent.
Karachi's traffic deaths
The past weekend was particularly gory and disturbing as far as road accidents in Karachi were concerned. Four people were crushed to death by speeding trucks, buses or dumpers in separate accidents.
The incidents then led to severe unrest in some parts of the city with several vehicles, including those that had nothing to with the accidents, torched by mobs of angry protesters.
Since the beginning of Ramazan, 40 people have died in traffic accidents in Karachi with over a dozen vehicles being burnt by protesters following the accidents. According to the traffic DIG, dumpers have caused 12 deaths so far this year and a ban on their movement in the city has been imposed, from six in the morning to eleven at night. This seems ample evidence, if any were needed, of a virtual breakdown of order on Karachi's roads.
So how is this slide into traffic anarchy and chaos to be checked? First there has to be a strict enforcement of the traffic laws and driving regulations. Instead of looking for 'chai paani' from harried motorcyclists, traffic constables should do their job, which is to regulate traffic and to enforce the laws on every motorist uniformly.
Most drivers of public transport and goods vehicles have licences from outside Karachi, and many are fake. A deadline must be set for them to obtain licences from the relevant traffic authorities in Karachi, failing which their vehicles should be impounded.
As for the ban imposed by the traffic DIG restricting dumpers from early morning hours to late night, it was violated with impunity the very next day. Such a blatant lack of enforcement makes a mockery of the law in the eyes of the people.
Along with this, public awareness campaigns, especially those to educate drivers and pedestrians should be undertaken, preferably using the services of the many FM channels now available.
People should also be told not to take the law into their own hands and not damage public or private property, especially vehicles which have nothing to do with a particular accident.
Curse of bonded labour
Highlighting the evils of bonded labour, speakers at a seminar in Islamabad rightly pointed out that the solution to this scourge rampant in the country lay in the implementation of national laws and international conventions, accompanied by the political will to root out this reprehensible practice.
Unfortunately, although there is growing awareness of the rigours, atrocities and exploitation associated with bonded labour, few practical steps have been taken towards its elimination.
In many cases, whole families are held captive to work long hours in inhuman conditions to pay off mounting debts. Although Pakistan is a signatory to a number of international conventions on the subject and prohibits the practice under the Constitution and the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1992, it has yet to live up to its commitment to crack down with full force on this form of modern-day slavery.
The fact remains that bonded labour, witnessed predominantly in the agricultural and brick kiln sectors, has its roots in centuries-old feudal traditions, many practitioners of which remain prominent figures in national life.
With their hold over the local population and influence with law-enforcement authorities, the feudal lords get away with blatantly flouting the laws of the land. Some of them go so far as to lock up hapless workers in private jails, another reprehensible aspect of feudal exploitation and tyranny.
Unless the government takes active measures to prosecute the offenders and to punish those found guilty, this practice cannot be stamped out. At the same time, every effort must be made to rehabilitate those labourers, along with their wives and children, who do manage to escape the clutches of their barbaric captors and persecutors. Human rights groups have been focusing on the problem, but the government needs to do more.