Filth now floats on the once serene freshwater canal of Nullah Leh
AROUND two million poverty-stricken people — mostly slum dwellers — living across the bank of the cruel Nullah Leh (country’s largest sewerage channel) are living in fear of devastating floods, that the monsoon rains may bring this year.
Their fears are not over-exaggerated — a two-hour rain the other day had raised the water to a dangerous level despite the fact, the Leh had been widened and further excavated to increase its capacity. The ‘widened’ Leh is full of hundreds of thousands of polythene bags that adversely affect the water flow. And if left unchecked, one can imagine what a heavy downpour can do to the Leh and its surrounding areas.
A visit to Leh these days (with the monsoon season just warming up) and a chat with the slum dwellers reveals their deep hidden fear, frustration and helplessness that, due to poverty, has condemned them to take shelter at the bank of Leh.
The Leh originates from the hills of Islamabad and flows into the River Sawan, Rawalpindi. The last flood that the Leh witnessed was on July 23, 2001. Just a few hours of 620mm rain resulted in the worst floods in the city’s history. Thirty-five people lost their lives while many slums were swept away resulting in financial loss worth millions.
“We fear the repeat of the 2001 flood,” said Sabiran Bibi daily-wage earner who had lost her husband in the last flood.
“I know it is dangerous to live near the Leh. Every year, the flood kills several of our people and ruins our mud-houses and household belongings. But we are condemned to live here because we don’t have any other option. We work in the city as labourer and find it viable to live near the Leh. We live here in the most abominable conditions. You could feel the stink. We have no access to clean drinking water and health facilities. We are also harassed by the city administration. When we don’t pay them bribe, they demolish our houses under the excuse of encroachment. The government does not budge to provide us low-income housing. We are living here like animals and worms,” complains Sabiran.
Rawalpindi’s District Nazim Tariq Kiyani claims that there will be no flood in the Leh in future. “The flood of 2001 was one example in a 1000 years. We have broadened the Leh, dredged it further and increased its capacity to 40,000 cubic feet per second. I strongly hope, by the grace of Allah, the Leh will never overflow.”
But Dr Daanish Mustafa, who is conducting a research project on Leh, disputes Kiyani’s claim.
“It will be arrogant to claim total victory against nature. Humans cannot fight nature and win. Leh has been dredged and broadened technically. But the excavated sand has been left on its corners that will be carried right back into the channel reducing its capacity drastically when heavy rains would start. Moreover, the foundations of several bridges have been excavated too. The flood will weaken them and their collapse is quite possible.”
Encroachment across Leh is one of the main reasons of flood. The administration claims to have removed it but the local residents dispute this assertion. “The administration has removed some of the encroachments. Some houses are right in the way of the Leh. They have not been removed because the residents had bribed the administration,” said Alla Ditta who runs a teahouse near the Leh. Ditta paid a bribe of Rs5,000/- to the administration to save his teahouse.
According to a case study, Ecology and Pollution in Human Settlement: Nullah Leh, the 43km long Leh receives approximately 1300mm rainfall every year. About 60 per cent of the rain is recorded during the monsoon seasons. Until 1980, some parts of the Leh were a clear water stream. It was polluted fully when Islamabad was expanded.
Some 50 years ago, the Leh was home to fish, turtles and a variety of aquatic life. Flower and vegetable gardens could be seen around it and bamboo trees grew along its banks, clear water flowed in the groundwater wells of its adjoining areas while swimming in the stream happened to be a favourite pastime of the areas residents. Water from Leh was stored and used for supply to the residents of Rawalpindi. The water also irrigated a miniature Moghul Garden. The garden around supplied flowers to the entire city of Rawalpindi.
“The Leh has become the center of all kinds of negative activity such as soil erosion, annual floods, encroachments by milkmen along its banks, and the resultant animal waste that is dumped into it in addition to the industrial waste and household sewerage. The present state of defilement of the Leh can be attributed to three main factors, pollution, encroachments and flooding and low groundwater recharge. These three factors are rooted in the weaknesses of the present institutional framework, including the problem of law enforcement, insufficient interaction among the governmental agencies, and lack of community involvement,” says Ali Tauqeer Sheikh.
“A total of 700 tons of solid waste of Rawalpindi and 300 tons of Islamabad is dumped everyday in Leh. Out of 35 million gallons per day of liquid waste produced in Rawalpindi and 30 million gallons per day generated in Islamabad, only five million gallons are treated daily and that too only partially. All the untreated and the partially treated waste go into the Leh. Municipal solid waste, including plastic bags and other articles, rotten fruits and vegetables, bones, wood, glass, metal and construction materials such as sand, bricks, etc, are thrown into the Leh both by the citizens as well as the municipal authorities,” claims the case study.
The claims are not contested by the city administration. Pervez Daanish, a senior official at Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation says: “A total of 900 tons of solid waste of Rawalpindi is dumped everyday in Leh.”
Around 150,000 buffaloes that supply milk to the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad are kept on the Leh’s banks. These animals spend much of their time bathing in the Leh water and, not surprisingly, they discharge a large quantity of dung into it everyday. And where the milkmen do not have a direct access to water, drainage and sewerage pipes are broken open both to draw water to bathe the buffaloes and to throw the refuse in. Even the Leh flood plain is not free from encroachment, says the case study.
The Leh issue is not just about environment and pollution. Many think that the issue of flooding is part of a larger issue with two succinct dimensions. At the first level, it reflects upon the apathy of the authorities towards provisions of human settlements for low-income groups that perform vital functions both in the formal and informal economy of the twin cities.
The second issue is that of recognizing the true nature of Nullah Leh.
Unfortunately, the authorities have been viewing the Leh without taking into account its historical status. What was once a freshwater stream providing a range of environmental services such as environmental purification, fisheries, and maintenance of biodiversity has been reduced to a sewerage outlet.
Experts believe that no such drive has ever been launched to involve the residents of posh localities to invest in the proper disposal and treatment of their sewerage.
Issues of the Nullah Leh are not as localized as it would seem initially. The discharge from Leh enters River Sawan with very high levels of hazardous chemical and biological waste to be eventually conveyed into the Indus River System, putting the well being of large populations in the Indus Basin in serious jeopardy.
Does Leh have an environment-friendly solution? Some say it has several. But people will have to be involved first. The best solution is to remove all the encroachments; pay the affected people a just compensation — they have yet to be paid a fair compensation for the losses they suffered in 2001 flood; construct a bicycle track between Rawalpindi and Islamabad along the Leh side; embellish the sides with flowers and provide the people of the twin-cities a healthy transportation.
Says Dr Humeira Khan, a biodiversity specialist, “Leh is the result of hundreds of serious issues that cannot be covered in this article. But at least it proves one point. The government’s failure to develop the rural areas and generate employment in the villages and remote cities has forced the poor to settle in the metropolitan cities. Urbanization alone is giving rise to serious social, environmental and political problems. The major reason for all the evils is the lack of funds for social welfare programmes. As long as Pakistan will continue to spend all its income on the defence of its territory at the cost of human security, the country will keep on sinking deep into the quagmire of poverty, and one day it might just drown completely!”
Filth now floats on the once serene freshwater canal of Nullah Leh 
