CM, WASA and Billboard Reform

Here's a link to this week's column.

Nestle in Sheikhupura

Nestle is expanding its water purification facility in Sheikhupura. Because this is a water treatment scheme that costs more than Rs. 25 million (and because the extraction of water has the potential to cause adverse environmental effect), Nestle was required by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997 to commission and submit an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the project. It hired NESPAK to conduct the EIA.



WWF - Pakistan has slammed the EIA report.



I was told of the Nestle EIA a few days ago by a fellow Nabeela Ahmad, an advocate who also teached environmental law at LUMS. My first reaction was to dismiss the concerns, but Nabeela, quite rightly, pointed out that my skepticism would be justified as long as we lived in a world where water and access to water is treated like an entitlement. This is true (and she won the argument by convincing me). We often overlook the fact that most of us get flowing water 24/7. This is quite anomolous for a third world country. The fact that WASA still pumps water to most of the city's resident's speaks volumes about it (though some would say WASA does bugger all, which is also true!).



The point is that water can't be taken for granted. Nestle's activities in Pakistan have been fairly well documented by an ActionAid report. What's most depressing is the report clearlyunderlines the total lack of appreciation amongst the powers that be that water is a scarce resource (as opposed to a right or a commodity), and that our water usage should be regulated in this light. We cannot continue to let companies like Nestle pump water to be sold for profit, especially when it reportedly does so inefficiently and while government agencies responsible for water supply do not/can not do it for profit.



The WWF has commented on Nestle's EIA report. The comments look something like this:

The report tries to distort some basic facts by portraying extension of existing Bottled Water project as Water Purification Plant resulting in underestimation of the scale, complexity and potential impact of the Project.

The report does not describe the hydro-geological conditions in general and potential of the water aquifer in particular. There is no data or scientific information on water balance to assess the impact of withdrawing groundwater, which is the most important impact parameter. Pumping large quantity of water can affect the ground water level and availability in the area leading to major social and environmental disaster, therefore identifying a need to conduct a thorough water balance study. This study should atleast address important questions regarding following questions:

• What is the groundwater availability in the area?
• What is the current level of extraction for various purposes?
• What will be the daily rate of extraction of water? (The report proposes the water extraction on hourly basis).
• What will be the radius of influence due to groundwater extraction by this industry? What is the current rate of groundwater decline in the area? And how will the new plant alter/affect this equation?

Following are few other observations:

• In the report on page E-1 (last 3 lines), gives a totally different picture of water withdrawal. There seems to be a mistake in the unit. Instead of liters, it’s mentioned in m³. Even if we assume that it is in liter, still the water withdrawal is very high.
• The existing plant is producing 34500 bottles per hour. For this the total water withdrawn is 413,950 liters/hr, which looks unreasonably very high. As for every one bottle, Nestle is withdrawing 12 liters of water, which is highly wasteful and inefficient. The ratio of water consumption and bottle water production should not exceed (litre to litre) 3:1.
• Furthermore, data on wastewater discharge from the plants is also confusing.
• Measures concerning impacts of construction and operational activities of the proposed plant on the local / surrounding community are not considered in the impact assessment study.
• It is mentioned in the report that the water samples are taken from “the locations” for water quality testing and is also mentioned in the report that the locations are specified in the table below. However, tables to which text refer to does not explain or indicate the location (refer to section 4).

• The mitigations proposed do not correlate with the impacts identified during the assessment (refer to section 5 of the report). For example, it is mentioned in the report that air emission can cause health impacts including throat, eyes nose irritation, but at the same time the impacts are considered minor. Also as is mentioned in section 5.3.2, percentage or level of emission of PM is not specified.
• As is said in the report that the sewerage and drainage system of the area will improve, however, HOW it will be improved is not specified.
• The company should also incorporate groundwater monitoring, recharge and wastewater reuse / disposal into their Environmental Management Plan (EMP).

We strongly urge EPA Punjab to return this report, halt construction of proposed plant and ask the proponent to conduct a comprehensive scientific water balance study of the area.

It's time to take water management seriously. It's time to stop commercial interests from depriving people from safe and affordable drinking water. It's time to stop consuming millions of little plastic bottles of water (which wind up littering drains). It's time to stop being elitist and overlooking this problem.

There goes the local government

There's been plenty of debate about whether or not Shahbaz Sharif would scrap the local government ordinance.  Most of the local government administration are affiliated with the PML-Q.  Sane counsel prevailed, I am told, and the idea to scrap the PLGO was deemed to be as radical as the move to introduce it.

Be that as it may, the conspicuous absence of elected local government officials is quite a dismay. Shahbaz is filling the void between government and government by standing in for photo-ops and wading through knee-high rain water.  At the same time, he is working very closely with the WASA, the water and sanitation agency of the Lahore Development Authority.  In other words, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is using a development authority rather than the local government as his main urban planning and enforcement weapon. The new MD WASA is an environmental scientist and was summoned from a federal post in the EPA by Shahbaz himself. The new DG of the LDA (formerly DG PHA)is another effective administrator and is spearheading the government's efforts to enforce local government bye-laws.  The new DCO is busy ensuring that shoppers at the weekly Sunday Bazaars aren't taken advantage of.

Between these officers and offices we can identify the players Shahbaz will be using to manage the urban planning of the city. Save the DCO, none are from the local government administration.  Statutorily, the LDA is an independent body but it falls under the administration of the Housing and Urban Development Department.  LDA budget's are published and circulated only after the summary has received the assent of the CM.  One can gauge how independent the LDA is.  It isn't.

So much for not scrapping the system.  This is just a polite way of going about it.

Sunday Morning Drive 13 July

Last week's drive was from Sabzazar to Chauburji. I'm very interested in documenting how the villages and settlements that surrounded Lahore were gradually enveloped by the city. Near Sabzazar is the village of Saidpur and the Shrine of Shah Farid. From there, I went north followed the road past Dhanowal parralell to Multan Road.

Here's an example of a new Lahori Jharoka in a house in the area.











I resurfaced on Bund Road, in the precincts of the Nawankot Police Station. This is where one of Lahore's bigger bus addas is.

From there, I got back onto Multan Road and headed towards Chauburji. A little before Poonch House, I turned left.











Welcome to Chauburji Park











Below are some of the houses in and near Chauburji Park. The old house is very fascinating. It's located on Ramraj Road (please correct me if I'm wrong) and very near the Chuburji monument itself.

Lahore from the Sky (Part 3)

Yet more photos you don't get to see everyday

This is the third and final installment of the photographs I took from a charter flight a few days ago.


The photo above is, I apologize, left over from the last blog entry. There, I tried to group together some photos that best brought Lahore's urban residential template into focus. The photos above is another example. Taken from above LUMS, you can see Phase V behind it and more DHA as far as the eye can see. Phase V has already been plotted out and people have not only begun construction, some have actually moved in. Within the next couple of years, the entire area behind LUMS in the photo above will be full of houses using cars, air-conditioners, drinking water and consuming other utilities in a non-sustainable and environmentally unfriendly manner.

That said, this photo is a good place to start this third edition of the Lahore from the Sky blog entry. We will be returning to DHA towards the end of today's entry.

Here's a good photo taken of GOR-I from over the Race Course Park. From here, you can clearly see the monstrous new Chief Minister's Secretariat building. I've written about this monstrosity before, and you can find a copy of my article here. The photo above also indicates where the park I write about is.


Here's another photo. You know, just below and to the left of the new CM Secretariat is the old Chief Minster's Official Residence. Below that is the GOR-I abadi. I had no idea it was so close to the boundary wall of the CM Secretariat. I'm sure there's a joke or a euphemism in this photo somewhere, I just can't seem think of it.


From the photo above you can make out the Governor's Mansion and the Lawrence and Montgomery Halls. Below the PC is the same GOR-I basti that you can make out in the pictures above. I've written about how I find this basti a bit of an urban planning conundrum. Think about it.


If you get a headache (or worse) while you're staying at the PC, do you know where the nearest pharmacy is? Okay, so what if the Concierge doesn't have Paracetamol, or what if you need something the hotel doctor doesn't stock? The nearest pharmacy is well over a 15 minute walk away.

What intrigues me about this is why the basti behind the PC hasn't responded to the market need. Why isn't this area (and it's comparatively cheaper land prices) a collection of small cafe's galleries and other things tourists and visitors need (like pharmacies). There must be something terribly wrong with our property development paradigm if this isn't happening. On the other hand, someone told me there weren't any cafe's behind the PC because Mr. Hashwani wouldn't want anyone making Rs. 115/- for every order of Coca Cola. Fair point.


The photo above and two below are when we flow over the Upper Mall area. I got some good photographs of the Mall Road between Zafar Ali Road and the Canal.



Below is a shot taken from the same position as above, but facing the other way. You're now looking from the Mall roughly northwards towards the Cantonment. On the top right of you photo, you can see the village and Tomb of Mian Mir. I'm fascinated about how old villages like Mian Mir, Ichra and Mozang were absorbed by the the growth of the city.


Mian Mir has played it's part in the history of this part of the city. Below is a portion of a 1927 survey map of the area. Raza posted some interesting information about the present site of the Gymkhana Club and its relationship with the Mian Mir area. Read more about it here.


We also managed to fly over the Tomb of Hazrat Mian Mir. You can see his shrine (below) and the pavilion attached to the complex (above).


Here's a picture of the pavilion from another angle, just to give you an idea of the size of the place.


Below are some photos of Charrar village in DHA. I consider these some of the most interesting photos I got. First, get your bearings. I've taken a snap from Google Earth that show you Charrar smack in the middle of High End DHA.


This is what the village looks like from the sky. From what I understand, the village came to surrounded gradually, with the development of new phases. By the time Phase IV came around, the village was totally surrounded. Like I said, I'm interested in how villages integrate themselves with the growing city. Charrar hasn't been very lucky. Read here (promises) and here (reality) why.


I happened to be on a commercial flight a few days later and, by chance, I managed to get another shot of Charrar after take off from Lahore airport.


Why does Charrar hold such fascination for me? Well, the gradual "criminlization" of the Charrar people (many in DHA, including the DHA administration, see the villagers as a nuisance) sets up a poor precedent for how urban growth accommodates pre-existing villages. That's not all, Lahore is set to expand even further in the coming years. Below is a snap from a satellite image of Lahore (the entire image can be seen here). You can make out DHA Phases 5 and 6 on the top and other housing societies to the left. But what will happen to the people of the villages that are now threatened by Lahore's development and expansion? Our urban planners and the DHA need to think long and hard about what the right thing to do is.


Anyone who wants to see the above image in all its glory can click here.

I've heard that DHA hasn't acquired the land for these villages because of the labor available there. I hope this isn't the case (and I will try and confirm it through my own sources and let you know), because it would be unfair to acquire a village's agricultural lands (as was done, for instance, in Charrar), use the village's labor and then create a high end residential accomodation scheme next to thousands of destitute former farmers.

The photo below is looking over and into the foundation of the upcoming Sheikh Zayed Center, the tallest building in South Asia. We were heading in to land and were on our approach run to the Walton airstrip. Note the cranes on the top left corner are completely submerged in the foundation. More interesting is how close the flight path to the runway is to the upcoming structure.


The pilots told us that there is some pressure to close the air club down. This pressure comes from the Air Force, which wants to use the land around the flying club for it's residential housing schemes. And on the other hand, the Sheikh Zayed Center is a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi Emaar construction company and the Government of Pakistan. Below is a clip I took from Google earth . It shows just how close to the flight path the construction is.



I wrote a piece on Walton airport much after this flight. You can find it here.

Lahore from the Sky (Part 2)

A Lahore you don't get to see everyday

The great advantage of chartering a flight (I recommend this to everyone, by the way, as one of the most entertaining way to spend an afternoon) is that you can treat it like a taxi.

After having flown over the older parts of town, I could sense that the pilots were falling to routine and were just covering a well worn "tourist" route. I asked them to fly over newer parts of Lahore.

I've written on Lahore's urban sprawl, but it really stands out from the sky. Now's a chance to show everyone what it looks like.


Above is the view from over Iqbal Town looking roughly eastwards. Note that residential housing dominates the photograph. To compare how Lahore has grown, I've cropped a portion of a 1927 Map of Lahore that I have.

In 1927, the only telling landmark is the line (on the top left of the map and heading downwards) demarcating Ferozepur Road. The area that is now Iqbal Town, or village Bhekewal, was mostly fields. There was no Punjab University on the Canal at the time. In fact, the land forming the University north of the Canal was used, it seems, as a rifle range.


Our houses are increadibly energy inefficient. From construction materials like cement and steel, which are energy inensive to produce, to energy consumption during use (like electricity, other utilities and automobiles) our houses consume massive amounts of energy. According to Economic Survey 2006-2007 (I know a new one has been published; I just haven't got round to reading it yet), the Household Sector consumes nearly 44% of all electricity produced.

Feast your eyes on prime examples of our energy guzzling urban development template:



Model Town is an old residential development dating to the early 1920s. It was an early example of the Garden City movement in this part of the world (the Garden City Movement is alive and well in 21st Century Pakistan - but that's another story). As a cooperative society, it was also one of the few instances where George Jacob Holyoak's revolutionary ideas on cooperation actually worked. Faisal Town is also relatively new (70s and 80s, from what I can gather).

We soon flew over parts of Johar Town and the many private housing schemes that are cropping up there.


For a better idea of all the housing societies coming up (as can be seen from the photos, most of these haven't been fully built up but will be in the next decade or so), click here (warning, large satellite image of Lahore).


Note the difference in density between Cantonment and non-Cantonment land (roughly, right and left of Zarar Shaeed Road). Below is another example (although the photo is really poor quality).


I can't get over the difference in density. Note the area along the railway lines and along Guru Mangat Road. This is civilan/Railway land. But note the almost deserted look of the land in Cantonment. People say there is a housing shortage fuelled by a lack of available land. Is this so? Or do we need to change our definition of what available land is.

Below is a look of how the Cantonment looked in 1927 (hint: enjoy the street names).

Lahore from the Sky (Part 1)

Recently, I had the opportunity of chartering a flight over Lahore. It's quite an experience. There are a couple of flying clubs over at the Walton Airport, and for the right price they'll take you on a tour of the city. I recommend these to anyone as one of best ways of spending an afternoon.

I managed to get some pictures using my camera phone. The cockpit glass was scratched and so some of the pictures are less than perfect. Still, these photographs offer a unique view of Lahore.

Above it the view over Wahdat Road looking north towards Ferozepur Road. Punjab University is on the bottom left and you can see the Canal stretch from the top left of the picture across the screen. Ichra is to the top left.

The next few photographs were taken as we flew over the Badshahi Mosque and Minar-e-Pakistan area. I've taken some "touristy" shots, but there's lots to learn about the city. Note the density of the Walled City and the Qilla Lachman Singh area on the bottom part of the picture.


As we swung around to go over the mosque and fort again, we flew over the Karim Park area. I got a good photo.


I have a map of Lahore prepared by the Surveyor General of India in 1927. I've cut out the portion of this map showing the area I've photographed (and indicated where the new urban localities have come up). The differences are startling, especially since it's not been 100 years since this map was published.



As we flew over the mosque again, I got a good photo of the entire Mosque/Gurdwara/Minto Park/Fort/Minar-e-Pakistan area.



The great things about the charter flight is that we were able to tell the pilots where exactly to go. Since we were in the area, we decided to cross over the Ravi and fly over the Shahdara area. I got a few photos of Jehangir's Tomb and Asaf Khan's Tomb.


You can read more about the Tomb here.

In the next two photos, the layout of the Mughal garden can be appreciated.

Kaman's Baradari is visible at the top left of the photo. A better image can be seen here.


We then flew back over the Ravi. I managed to get an important photograph of "North" Lahore. This is the area to the north of the Railway lines and bound by the Bund Road. This is unregulated, forgotten, poor and dirty Lahore.


When I look at densely populated unregulated development like this I can't but ask myself what forces operate to dampen the market forces. There has never been any redevelopment of this area. The only development Lahore has known is the conversion of agricultural land to residential purposes. Older commercial areas then slowly turn onto industrial areas. Our urban planners must look towards redevelopment as the basic land management tool.

We then flew over other parts of the city, starting with the administrative heart of Lahore.


We then flew over Chauburji and the Miani Sahib graveyard (which our pilot insisted on telling us was the "largest graveyard in Asia," whatever that means. Note that the ruin that remains of Chauburji was one of the corners of the walls of the garden of the Mughal princess Zebunissa, the daughter of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.


Chauburji is located close to Mozang Chungi (the old toll station for where you paid before entering Lahore from Ferozepur Road). In fact, Mozang was a village considered, at one time, to be outside the city. The 1927 map by the Surveyor General shows what this area looked like less than 100 years ago.


If Mozang was a village on the outskirts of Lahore, wouldn't that make Princess Zebunissa's garden an early version of a Farm House?