| September 24, 2007 | Monday | Ramazan 11, 1428 |
Construction hazards: first dust pollution, now landslides
THE Kumhar Road landslide in Rawalpindi, highlighted in the press last week, is the most recent of a number of incidents lately in the twin cities that point to inadequacy in sound environmental management practices during construction. The result is these sites pose health and safety hazards to both workers and the public.
It was very early in the morning when residents of the flats in one of the side lanes of Allama Iqbal Road were awoken by a rude shock. When they peeped out of their windows they found about 10 to 12 people breaking open three motor repair garages with large hammers. They then broke the windshields of the cars parked inside, took away spare tyres and CD players from the vehicles, broke open a safe (pocketing Rs20,000) and departed in less than an hour after completing their operation.
The residents phoned the three garage owners, who rushed to the scene and then went to the Ferozabad police station to have the FIRs lodged. The shift in-charge simply refused to do the needful. No amount of cajoling worked. The next morning the SHO also gave them the cold shoulder.
But that shouldn’t come as a surprise because many people, who have gone to police stations to have their FIRs registered, have had similar experiences. The police is reluctant — to put it mildly — to register an FIR because they are then obliged to investigate the crime and bring the criminals to book or simply because they have their own pound of flesh at stake.
Back to the garage owners, Akram, Raja and Aqeel, who thought that the worst was over. But two nights later they were in for a greater shock because the culprits – the land mafia (who else?), came with bulldozers. They dug up one of the garages, broke the walls separating the three garages, removed the repaired shutters and in one case built up a wall to block the entrance to the larger garage. This time it seemed they had all the time in the world because they even removed the cars from inside the garages. The residents of the flats and the defenceless chowkidar insist that they saw police mobiles parked at the two ends of the narrow lane when the act was in progress.
When the garage owners, responding to the phone calls by the panic-stricken residents, reached the spot they were able to catch two culprits, the others had bolted by then. They were taken to Ferozabad police station and some of the stolen tools were recovered from their car. Just to mollify the aggrieved parties the policemen on duty locked up the culprits, only to release them shortly after the garage owners left the premises. Once again the SHO refused to register an FIR. But Akram got one of his influential clients to phone a higher up in the police hierarchy and was successful in getting the FIR registered.
Many times in the past land grabbers have tried to remove the garages. Once a man in an army uniform, posing as a colonel, gave the garage owners an ultimatum: either they vacate the plot or get ready to be kidnapped by an intelligence agency. The man was an impostor, but what was disturbing is that he was backed by the policemen in the police station concerned.
The garage owners have gone to court and one would not like to comment on the case as it is sub judice. But the disturbing query remains why has the police always backed land grabbers? Will the SHO of the Ferozabad police station explain why did he and his staff refuse to register an FIR twice?–AN
Peddling hate
Of and on, the powers that be are known to make loud noises about the need to tackle ‘extremism’ (religious, in this context, as opposed to the other kinds prevalent in society).
However, this writer recently experienced something that made him realise just how freely groups that are supposed to be proscribed operate in our liberal, tolerant city by the sea. The story goes something like this.
A relative, who is a doctor, runs a clinic for low-income people in one of the katchi abadis near North Nazimabad. On a balmy evening he invited me to join him for a cup of tea at the clinic after he had finished dealing with his patients. I readily accepted and upon reaching the place, was greeted by verses from the Holy Qur’an being relayed through a loudspeaker.
The clinic is situated a few metres away from a religious seminary, so this was nothing unusual. However, marquees and lights were set up and I was told that it was the ‘graduation’ ceremony of the seminary students.
But this was no ordinary ceremony as the recitation from the holy book soon gave way to something decidedly different: what was actually taking place under the cover of an innocent graduation ceremony was a mini-rally of a banned sectarian group – a group with a violent, bloody past known to encourage the murder of fellow Muslims and handing out labels of apostasy as if they were chocolates.
The speakers began to literally sing the praises (funny, I thought these blokes hated all things melodic) of the outfit’s assassinated leader – gunned down on his way to Islamabad – and openly boasted that though their name had changed, their activities and raison d’etre remained exactly the same. I was also informed that one of the proscribed group’s head honchos was present as ‘chief guest,’ with Kalashnikov-toting guards in tow. Suffice to say, I urged my host to head elsewhere for a cuppa as the atmosphere had suddenly turned extremely ugly.
God only knows how many similar meetings of such sipahs, lashkars and millats take place in this huge city of ours. And more importantly, are the forces of moderate enlightenment doing anything about it? After all, the local police station was only about two or three kilometres away from the site of the meeting. And methinks the men therein must have had at least some idea about what kind of funny business was going on.
But then again, if a hotbed of (manufactured?) extremism was allowed to flourish right under the noses of the Islamabad elite (Lal Masjid, for those not in the know), what possible harm could a little get-together of self-proclaimed hate-mongers in Karachi do?—QAM
Cricket craze
With the advent of Ramazan, young men are seen putting up extra lights on various lanes and roads to hone (or as some would say to spoil) their cricket skills in night matches.
Though there are a few playgrounds in the city the exuberant youth prefer to play on roads, probably because the grounds are seldom maintained and the roads are relatively less bumpy for cricket. Or perhaps the players have grown so used to playing on concrete that they don’t feel comfortable playing on the soft rubble of open grounds.
Interestingly, the game not only offers a thrilling experience to its players and spectators, it also gives them a reason to sleep the next morning after Sehar till Iftar when they are served delicious food lavishly. (Never mind, there are others also who don’t play cricket but have a similar sort of passion to enjoy the blessings of the holy month).
Almost every one of us at one stage or the other in our life has participated in street cricket (not necessarily during Ramazan), but it was never such a cut-throat experience in the old days. What were unwanted but more common in those matches were the shouts from the affected house whenever a ball crossed its boundary wall or, worse, smashed its window.
Now, with the gradual advance from streets to service lanes to roads the sport has become all the more risky for its players, passers-by and motorists. Drivers often pray for life while coming across such enthusiasts on roads now and hope the windscreen of their car does not meet the same fate that the unfortunate house window did in the old days.
Though it is beyond comprehension to many why the young cricket-lovers opt for roads to play on (the scarcity of public grounds notwithstanding), some do understand the thrill involved and ask road-users to be cautious in the holy month as with each passing day, the number of players and night matches grow till Eid-ul-Fitr. By then, every street and road – except the thoroughfares – is occupied by cricketers young and old.
However, drivers need not fear for long since the cricket craze fizzles out as soon as the holy month is over.— HA
Compiled by Syed Hassan Ali
Email: karachian@dawn.com
Earth-moving operations connected with construction work on the Sheikh Rashid or Leh Expressway had caused a retaining wall and a portion of Kumhar Road on the banks of the Nullah Leh to collapse about a month ago putting about a dozen houses on the opposite edge of the road at risk of collapse.
The gravity of the situation at this site was worsened recently by rains which caused landslides and eroded the road even further putting dozens of occupants in the affected houses at risk of death and injury should the houses collapse.
Although the Kumhar Road case has not claimed any life so far and the occupants have reportedly been evacuated, a dumper truck driver involved in efforts to stabilize the ground at the affected site and reconstruct the road was injured last week when his vehicle fell into Nullah Leh.
An earlier mudslide last month however at the underpass construction site at China Chowk in the Capital’s Blue Area had killed two labourers and injured two others.
Excavation work for the underpass and consequent erosion at the construction site due mainly to rains had not only caused the tragic accident, but like in the Kumhar Road case, also put several buildings in the vicinity of China Chowk, including the multi-storey Shaheed-i-Millat Secretariat, in danger of structural damage if not collapse.
Earlier in the middle of this year when the weather was dry, the earthworks, quarrying and demolition at various road construction sites were a major source of dust pollution in Islamabad.
It is not as though there is a shortage of guidelines on environmental management practices in Pakistan. For instance, the Guidelines for the Preparation and Review of Environmental Reports produced by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pepa) in 1997 require that an environmental management plan (EMP) for any project provide a framework for sound management or mitigation of environmental impacts both during construction and later operation of the project.
Pepa in 1997 had also produced a series of reports entitled Sectoral Guidelines for Environmental Reports, in which it is maintained that construction is the time when impact on the environment is most severely felt and when the project site is particularly vulnerable to environmental disturbance or damage.
Out of five main environmental disturbances during the construction process outlined by Pepa, two are very much evident at the Kumhar Road and China Chowk construction sites. These are silt run off from construction operations, worsened by erosion during rains from unprotected excavated areas resulting in excessive soil erosion and possible damage to property; and dangers to workers and nearby residents from accidents, hazardous materials and emissions.
It is not always clear who is responsible when things go wrong in big construction projects like these. One thing however is definite: the soil slippage at both construction sites and the accident at the China Chowk site could have been prevented if mitigation or erosion control measures during the construction had been carefully planned and tied to monitoring and management plans.
The China Chowk construction site had also exhibited a third environmental disturbance outlined by Pepa, i.e., disruption of local traffic patterns, congestion and blocking of access to adjoining activities leading to accidents. This happened in March 2007 when an Indian national was killed in a traffic accident reportedly caused by the lack of installation of warning signs about the danger posed by the construction site to passing motorists and pedestrians.
Incidentally, Pepa’s guidelines also outline mitigation measures to control dust and odour generation and minimize their impact during construction. However, it is obvious from the severe dust pollution which enveloped several areas of Islamabad earlier during the drier months that these mitigation measures were not implemented at the road construction sites or if they were, had been inadequate.
Apart from the landslides at the Kumhar Road and China Chowk sites, two other incidents of structural collapse at construction sites in this part of the region have raised concerns about the general safety standards in our construction industry and the inadequate adoption of safety precautionary measures at these sites.
The most recent accident is the collapse of an under- construction building in Murree three weeks ago that killed at least two labourers and injured six others while they were removing the scaffolding supporting a newly laid floor of the building. In April 2003, the collapse of the under-construction Bano Arcade complex in Rawalpindi had killed two people and injured many others while a new floor was being added to the already constructed building.
Meanwhile, the collapse of completed structures like the multi-storey Margalla Tower apartment block in Islamabad during the October 2005 earthquake and a seven-storey apartment building in Murree in August 2006 that was scheduled for demolition after suffering structural damage in the October 2005 earthquake, has drawn attention not only to the construction quality and safety standards of many of our buildings but also to the viability of their design.
The fact that several other multi-storey buildings in Murree have been built in apparent violation of regulations and rules, as was reported in an English daily last week, ought to be a major cause of concern. Some of these buildings, precariously perched on hill slopes, pose grave danger to the public should they collapse during landslides in heavy rain or earthquake.
The standard of quality in our construction is most evident in the many roads built recently in the twin cities. Almost every week, one newspaper or the other publishes a photograph or two of a portion of a newly built road that has become potholed and broken after a little bit of rain. Last week, photographs were published which showed the broken and damaged portions of two recently built roads, viz., 7th Avenue and a link road on 9th Avenue.
While broken roads can at most cause traffic accidents, the consequences of a broken bridge, as we have seen in the case of the Northern Bypass in Karachi, can be much more catastrophic.
If there is any lesson we can learn from the construction practices in the more developed countries, it is the intrinsic link between safety and quality. The practices leading to high quality work and results most often lend to safe working conditions and high quality work practices.
There is no doubt whatsoever that unregulated construction activity, as it is going on here, is dangerous. The right standards of safety therefore need to be established in our construction industry so that both workers and the affected public can be kept safe and healthy.