| September 25, 2005 | Sunday | Sha'aban 20, 1426 |
A sad day for the city
THE very thought that one has to write about water shortage and its available quality is enough to engulf a citizen in frustration and fear. Perhaps another reaction or attitude could be one of cynicism, which would entail a comment like “you cannot do much about it, if at all!”
I wonder what citizens in this bursting provincial capital have thought as they read dreadful daily accounts of how waterborne diseases had claimed many lives in Landhi and other areas, in an ambience that was being described as an epidemic. One news report said on September 17 that the Sindh chief minister had taken notice of the epidemic.
Have they felt vulnerable because of the water they are drinking, consuming daily? Have they put themselves in the place of the hundreds and hundreds of men, women and children who landed in hospital because they had consumed contaminated water?
For those who live off mineral water bottles, the fear and frustration mentioned above may be altogether of a different kind. These citizens may be unsure and anxious that they are perhaps not using mineral water that is certified and safe… whatever that assurance and guarantee in a society where fake and adulterated brands of food items are easily available. Like the pirated intellectual property, counterfeit and dubious food items are a roaring business here. And being users, we know it, accept it, resent it, and suffer it in various degrees.
The popular perception is that almost all the water that we receive through tap or through boring water wells, is grossly unfit for human consumption. But how to solve the problem? What should citizen do? It is a no-choice option in most cases. Generally speaking, there are people who focus only on shortage of water and, therefore, accept any quality that is available. I have heard people’s remark that to expect quality is to be demanding in the context that the country is in. It is still an official goal that people of Pakistan are provided clean drinking water. The present government has promised that this will be done by 2007, and even this week the federal cabinet has looked at the strategy to be followed in this regard.
But there are people who, as a result of awareness of the concept of clean drinking water, are underlining the failure of the system (whatever that be) to ensure that safe drinking water is available to all people, not just to the affluent and the haves, but also to the poor. What unsafe and unclean water does when consumed is known, but apparently unstoppable.
The big question is how do we stop a repetition of what we have seen happening in Landhi and other localities this week. One may concede that the answer is not easy at this stage.
That it is a matter of resources and political will.
Experts at a seminar organized by the Microbiology Department of the University of Karachi and the Higher Education Commission, during the previous week, called for supply of clean water to the city.
The subject of the seminar was “How do we spread and control gastrointestinal infections” and, certainly not by design, there was unfolding trauma, if not a tragedy, of people being knocked down by dirty water. I do not find it surprising that the scientists and academics at that seminar had observed very grimly that “the microbial load in the drinking water supplied to Karachi is significantly high and also consists of the bacteria found in sewage.” But what is disappointing is that neither in the conversations of the educated people around us has there been reflected any real concern, or even awareness of what has agonized the residents of Landhi, nor have NGOs done anything mentionable in public interest more than a token expression of public anger and outrage. Ten people have died because water was unfit for human consumption. It was not just a cold headline. It was reality.
One Karachiite, a housewife, was very vocal in her criticism of the failure of the society to provide clean drinking water to the poorer sections of population. She took a swipe at the pompous and the pious rhetoric of leaders (including politicians). She said something familiar; that the upper classes, the elite and affluent, do not care as a rule about the living conditions of the lower and the working classes, and were it not for some media concern that has surfaced, the whole issue would have been put aside. This newspaper carried a disturbing story on Friday which said that the “Danger of outbreak in Landhi persists”. It shows, among other factors, the desperation of the people to get water, howsoever unsafe it may be. Said this Dawn story that “the danger of erupting fatal waterborne diseases which have already claimed 10 lives in different parts of Landhi Town is still persisting in Awami Colony as a number of pipelines passing through a sewage—carrying nullah have not been disconnected reportedly owing to resistance being put up by residents of the locality.” The population under mention gets 15 to 20 water tankers daily as against a need of 100 water tankers a day. Some familiar reasons why there is a water shortage in this particular part of Karachi have been mentioned.
One could concede that there is something utterly familiar about the sufferings of Landhi Town that have come to surface. But what seems to have been different this time is that it was almost a week of misfortune for the affected people, of a city that otherwise went about with its routine.
The KESC also disappointed the citizens when it came to power supply… and here, too, there is no light yet at the end of the pipeline. One reason for the power failures was attributed to the organizations like the NLC, KWSB and PTCL, which are currently, by mistake, damaging the overhead and underground electricity distribution systems. Funny scenario! Nothing seems to have changed. One organization doesn’t know or care what the other is doing, and how the average Karachiite is being harassed and humiliated.
Our focus today is on water. The broader view is that there is a water shortage in Pakistan, and in the world, too. That tomorrow’s battles will be fought for water? True! one hears all this frequently and more. And also that there should be dams — big and small.
But it is immediacy of the concern, and the anxiety that is very hard-hitting. It is harsh reality that our water remains unsafe for human consumption, as a rule. I am distracted also by the reality of the mineral water bottles that we see all around us all the time. Even in large offices, and in the newly-built plazas, clean water supplies are unreliable. If for the downtrodden there is a Landhi Town horror, for the urbanites who can afford it, there is that mineral water bottle, apparently. These too can be substandard, and ‘unfit for human consumption’.
Take it or leave it: that’s the option, dear reader.
THE kind of tolerance shown to terrorists operating in our cities is a blot on the face of the rulers. Seven innocent people lost their lives at Azadi Chowk and Ichhra on Thursday when two time-controlled devices went off. Many others sustained injuries, and reminded one of the victims of the bombs that rocked Quetta last Tuesday and of those at two of Karachi’s fast food restaurants on Sept 8. What is going on, you may ask, only to find that the authorities concerned are as lost for explanation as you yourself.
Never before have we, as a nation, shown this kind of tolerance for cold-blooded murder taking place in our midst. It’s not as if there is a dearth of security or intelligence personnel; indeed they are far too many, wearing many hats and operating under different names —- uniformed and in plain clothes. Yet, terrorists continue to strike at the time and place of their own choosing.
It should make an interesting study if a probe were conducted into what our law enforcement and intelligence agencies actually do on a given day, because they are certainly not doing what they ought to be doing. Since no bad NGO out on a limb to damage the country’s image has taken up such a project so far, one can only conjecture as to the real working of the public-sector security agencies. No need to start with the police because we all know too well what they are up to.
But what about the many intelligence agencies whose men roam the streets in plain clothes? They are obviously busy chasing the wrong people, people whose movements and actions may be politically relevant to the establishment. Opposition leaders and political or rights activists may cause the government embarrassment by their actions now and then, but they are not anti-state or anti-social elements that need to be monitored so diligently by the intelligence squad. Unless this basic point is driven home and there exists an acceptance of responsibility on the part of the rulers for diverting the intelligence personnel’s time and energy to the detriment of society, there can be little hope of pre-empting acts of terrorism.
Lahore has had the distinction of being regarded as the safest city in the country, where diplomats and foreigners, both residents and visitors, are not warned to make special security arrangements when they go out. The recent indiscriminate bombings targeting innocent citizens was not something you expected in Lahore. However, the apprehension expressed by the English and Australian cricket boards regarding their teams’ scheduled matches in the city in the forthcoming season is taking things too far.
The PCB and the government should take up the matter at the highest level to ensure that no undue harm comes to the city’s cricketing image. The example set by the authorities with regard to Karachi as a cricket venue is something to be ashamed of, and must not be repeated with Lahore. If London can continue to host cricket matches in spite of the obvious danger of terrorism there, why can’t our cities be treated in the same manner?
THE federal population welfare ministry has come up with the idea of offering pesh-imams an honorarium amounting to Rs1,200 per month in exchange for their help to further the cause of family planning. So here’s more public money going to the mullahs with an aim to encourage them to interfere in your personal lives. Back in Ziaul Haq’s days, madressahs were offered special grants out of the Zakat fund to make them an alternative to the public school system. And now we have a full blown monster on our hands and we don’t know how to rein it in.
The majority of pesh-imams, owing to their semi-literate credentials and serious deficiencies in the knowledge of the very communities they are supposed to serve, are hardly the kind of people who need to be encouraged or empowered any further than they have been by some misguided elements. No good and more harm is likely to come of this flawed policy of appeasing the proverbial mullah operating at the grassroots level.
The social dynamics in countries like Bangladesh, Morocco and Egypt where the governments say such programmes have worked are entirely different from those in Pakistan. None of the governments in question used the mullahs to further a superpower’s agenda of jihad in a third country, as was the case here with regard to the crisis in Afghanistan.
THE visiting leader of the Indian Merchants’ Chamber Rajesh Gordhandas Kapadia had good things to say to his counterparts at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry regarding the changes the business community was seeking in the existing India-Pakistan visa regime. New Delhi, he said, was seriously considering to allow Pakistani businessmen to travel freely anywhere in India and not restrict their movements to a few cities, as is the case at present.
One hopes this is not just another promise on the part of the Indians. You can’t clamour for increased trade relations and impose restrictions on visiting businessmen at the same time, waiting for reciprocity from Islamabad. If India were to take this initiative, Pakistan would sooner than later have to reciprocate.
Similar is the case with increased people-to-people contacts that the two countries committed themselves to enhancing under the Musharraf-Vajpayee accord signed in Islamabad two years ago. No significant change has taken place in providing greater relief to those wishing to undertake cross-border visits in the general category. Issuance of hassle-free tourist visas to each other’s nationals at the border posts has remained a dream. If this were to happen, there would be a stream of tourists across our borders, which would generate much goodwill besides accelerating economic activity.
One hopes that Mr Kapadia’s reading of the Indian government’s intentions is right as far as visa liberalization is concerned. His sentiments were echoed by many of his hosts at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry the other day. —OBSERVER