Sweetly perfumed wallflowers | Photos by the writer
Increasingly high temperatures and other ‘extreme weather events’ are part and parcel of global climate change. Along with this, here in Pakistan, an expanding shortage of potable water (for a variety of reasons and not only related to climate) and essential irrigation water for crops are causing problems throughout the country.
In such a scenario, which is more liable to worsen, it is more apparent than ever that the luxury of maintaining a ‘lush green lawn’ should be classified as a crime against humanity. These may sound strong words but, being realistic, all so true.
Historically speaking, lawns were introduced, partly as a status symbol and partly in remembrance of ‘home’ by the British colonisers of the subcontinent. They are not, and never have been, an indigenous feature of Pakistani gardens which, on the whole, have always been more about food than flowers and certainly not about grass.
Because of water shortage the luxury of a lush green lawn is not practical any more
With an ever-burgeoning population, combined with the ever-increasing migration of people from rural to urban areas in search of work and sustenance, the pressure on potable water in large towns and cities has long been intolerable. In addition to this, outmoded irrigation systems, combined with drastically altered patterns of rainfall and a diminishing labour force, is bringing our once fabled agriculture to its knees.
The need of the hour — aside from urgent tree plantation in the battle against climate change — is to use whatever water possible for the production of food, not to waste it on outmoded lawns whose time has long since passed. If householders do not need food for themselves, it can be given away to those in need.
If you have a lawn, have a rethink and redesign your garden area with humanity in mind rather than purely personal aesthetics.