Small farmers face brunt of dry spell

Eye-opening article by Imran Ali Teepu in Dawn (17 January 2010)

ISLAMABAD: The changing weather system has further added to the difficulties of small farmers in the Potohar region who primarily depend on rainwater for their meagre production.

And the Met Office does not foresee any immediate relief for them as it forecast that the current dry spell would continue for another week or so.

An official of the Pakistan Metrological Department told Dawn that after crossing the two stages of drought - metrological and hydrological - the country was now entering the emerging agricultural drought stage.

“This is an agriculture drought which occurs when rainfall amount and distribution, water reserved in soil and evaporation combines to start affecting crops.”

The Barani areas, he said, were already experiencing crop failure and were under severe agricultural drought.

He said this is an El-Nino factor which was developed in June 2009 and suppressed the monsoon rainfall in the country by about 30 per cent and was likely to continue till next year.

El-Nino effect is an invasion of warm water into the surface of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru and Ecuador every four to seven years that causes changes in local and regional climate associated with a positive anomaly.

The Met official further said that since the end of monsoon rainfall, which too was deficient, most parts of Pakistan except some areas had not received any significant rainfall.

For a poor farmer, the investment of Rs30,000 on a single crop is a substantial amount when adverse weather conditions put at risk his hope to earn profit.

Raja Ilyas has pinned all his hopes on the three kanals of his Barani agricultural land in the Panwal village. “If it doesn’t rain, I don’t know how to feed my children,” said the dejected 48 years old, looking towards the sky and praying for rain that could breathe life into his land.

Ilyas is not the only small-scale farmer living on the outskirts of Islamabad desperately waiting for rain.

Many others who have been engaged in the profession for the last three generations and own less than ten kanals can fall under heavy debts and would be forced to buy wheat from the markets if there is no rain. They also fear of their animals falling sick if the drought persists.

These small farmers have no other alternative and even cannot bear the cost of boring in search of water. “The current drought-like situation is an impact of climate change,” said Dr Zulfiqar, an environment researcher at the Quaid-i-Azam University.

He attributed the dry spell to concentration of green house gases in the air and the unchecked population growth. Pakistan’s per capita water availability is also decreasing. It was 2,000 cubic metre a few years ago which has now decreased to 1,350 cubic metre - a danger level, he added.

In reply to a question, Dr Zulfiqar said the rain dependant farmers should go for micro-boring to meet the challenge of water shortage.

Better roads not to better commuters' lot

Article on the state of public transport in Islamabad. From Dawn e-paper

Better roads not to better commuters’ lot By Rahim A. Khan

Among the many public services that are so lacking in this country, public transport is one that has seldom been addressed to and on the rare occasions when civic authorities have shown some interest, the initiative has often been wrangled out of their hands by private transporters who fear the loss of their monopoly. Public transport is a government concern. The provision of an efficient and affordable service is government responsibility. Growing populations mean growing cities in which mass mobility is a need no government can overlook if the economic life of the country is to run smoothly. The transport situation in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad is in total disarray and the common man who must use public transport to go about the daily business of life is at the mer cy of a sloppy private service run by unscrupulous greedy operators in connivance with a corrupt traffic police. The whole approach of the government, if it has any, is skewed. It believes the broadening of roads and placing of more policemen on cross roads to control traffic can provide the common people with a rapid transport system. In fact it is just a ruse. What is in reality intended is to make the roads broader and smoother for the rich people to drive through in their expensive cars without having to stop at traffic signals. The broadening of roads and building of overhead and under passes is not going to solve the traffic muddle for the common man. He needs an efficient road transport that touches all points of the city, runs on time, and is economical and comfortable. Only such a system will dissuade people from having private cars and burning expensive fuel on commuting to work and back, taking children to school and going shopping. Once such a system is in place the need to broaden roads and change the map of the city will automatically end. The plight of the people who have to travel daily between Pindi and Islamabad cannot be described in words.When after hours of torturous waiting the bus shows its face it is an ordeal to climb it and find a seat for oneself. When the days work is done the rush at bus stops makes the goal of reaching home an uncertain possibility. Buses, vans and coasters run past the stands. It is an undignified sight to watch aged gentlemen chasing them to hop into as soon as the driver makes a sudden stop a furlong ahead of the regular stand. This is the daily routine of the commuter. Incompetence it surely is but it is also heartless of the government and a pity it calls itself representative and elected. There were some efforts by the previous government. The ‘Varan’ bus service was a welcome introduction but could not g o beyond that. Its operation was throttled. First it was the private transporters who protested against it telling the government it had made life easier for the common citizen. Government agreed it was not its purpose to ease the burden of life on the common man.Then Varan itself found it difficult to ply an uneconomical service on hostile roads and was forced out of operations in the city. A rail service between the two cities was also proposed (the government is never in short supply of good ideas) but it never saw the light of the day. We are back to square one of course and all those who huddle at bus stops waiting for hope to appear in the shape of a bus have all the time in the world. How difficult would it be? To introduce a government run mass transit system? Not so hard I think but this is more a ‘will’ than a ‘way’ argument. As mentioned above, public transport slashes the number of cars on the roads and as a lesson in causality such a means would have countless benefits. Fewer cars on the roads mean lower consumption of fuel. That means less pollution. For people it means less spending on cars maintenance as well as the fuel. For the government it means less public works costs (more cars = more wear & tear on roads) and a new source of revenue from their own transport system. But again that ‘will’ I speak of is not there. But there is something at the heart of this that regardless of the lack of facilities is the biggest obstacle. As a people we are so class conscious that if seen using public transport we think it is the ultimate shame we can bring to our families. Owning a car is a status symbol. If not seen in one’s chariot, eyebrows are raised. Walking, they say is only good for exercise. Agreed, the present services aren’t fit for anyone but if one day they were, would the wealthier among us use them? In far more developed and richer countries, public transport is used by everyone. The Mayor of New York rides the subway everyday to office even though it is infested by rats aplenty. MP’s and Cabinet Ministers are often seen stepping out of cabs to go to Parliament or 10 Downing Street in Britain. I think our middle and upper class would be beggars in comparison to the well to do in the West, yet we pose as if we are better. It may seem fanciful to philosophize something so ordinary, but does not the idea of some bigwig using public transport have an egalitarianizing feel to it? As if it is the office and not the man that we must respect? It would be a different, better country if we saw those who ruled us at our level, that of the street. The writer is a freelance contributor and may be reached at: ides_of_march@hotmail.com

Hubris of the Centaurus

In Greek mythology the centaurus were barbarous beasts said to be half-horse and half-human. One centaurus, Chiron, was extremely wise and is said to have tutored Hercules and Jason (of the Argonauts). According to legend, Hercules inflicted an accidental wound upon his mentor that left the beast living but in great pain. Chiron begged and pleaded for the gods to end his suffering until finally, taking pity, Zeus mercifully let the beast die and gave him a place in the stars. Indeed, Centaurus the Centaur is considered the most magnificent of the southern constellations.

More recently, the spectre of a new centaurus has raised itself in the heart of our capital. Located on the corner of Jinnah and Faisal Avenues (for those who live in Islambad, it’s the huge hole in the ground at the western end of Blue Area), this centaurus is in the form of a property development envisioning high-rise luxury apartments, a business center and a shopping mall as well as “7-star star hotel.” Spread over 6.59 acres of prime real estate, the land for The Centaurus project is said to be the most expensive ever purchased in the history of Pakistan. And somehow, a photo of this mythical beast even graces the front page of the Economic Survey 2006-2007 published by the Finance Division of the Government of Pakistan.

Citizens of Islamabad, already in a state of alarm over the never-ending development projects being simultaneously undertaken in the city, are right to be concerned about this new development project. Some, no doubt in the wake of tragic earthquake of October 2005, are worried about the structural safety of such a high-rise construction in an area classified as Earthquake Zone IV. Some are worried that the traffic generated by this project will choke the main traffic arteries and some of the secondary and tertiary roads. Still more are worried about the effect this project will have on Islamabad’s water table. Others are concerned that the city’s infrastructure will not be able to cope with the demands of such a development. Some nearby residents are even concerned about the knock-on effect such a project will have on their neighborhoods and their homes. Clearly, an urban development project of this scale has adverse environmental effects.

Yet the manner in which the developers of this project, the Pak-Gulf Construction (Pvt) Ltd (PGCL), has carried out its responsibility to comply with our environmental protection laws leaves much to be desired. As if that weren’t enough, the Environment Protection Agency’s handling of this matter – on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the passing of the Pakistan Environmental Act, 1997 – is a stark reminder of the dismal enforcement record of our frontline environment protector and regulator. It’s as if the PEPA mandatory procedures didn’t exist or, if it did, didn’t matter. All this points to a grave misunderstanding of the nature and purpose of such a law and the procedures it lays out for anything that may harm the environment.

Conscientious citizens, led by Qazi Isa Daudpota, Helga Ahmed and others, wrote to Mr. Asif Shuja Khan, the Director-General of the EPA, making him aware of the serious environmental concerns raised by such a development as well as the fact that construction of The Centaurus began without the submission of an EIA and before a public hearing could be held (both punishable violations of the mandatory provisions of PEPA). For its part, the environmental regulator responded by issuing toothless reminders to the PGCL to comply with the law. The developers, in turn, engaged the services of Hagler Bailly which churned out an EIA report giving the project the green light it had been paid to do.

Some of the EIA report’s contents are quite revealing. For instance, it records that the CDA, in its agreement with PGCL, “shall at its own cost be responsible for providing all basic services such as electricity, gas, water, sewerage, drainage at the site of the Plot no later than the approval or deemed approval of the Plans or the Revised or Revised Plans as the case may be.” Such a concession may be a measure of the investor-friendly stance our government, but isn’t expecting the people of Islamabad to subsidize the infrastructure for the development a tall order? – which is what will happen when the CDA offsets the cost of providing The Centaurus utility infrastructure against the revenues it receives in the forms of fees and taxes.

While the EIA report considers The Centaurus an environmentally friendly prospect (and no doubt the EPA will approve the project – Qazi Isa Daudpota et al will continue to give it the scrutiny it deserves), the disclosures it makes raise questions about the decision making process that led to such a project being allowed in Islamabad in the first place. Indeed, there’s much to question about a mind that thinks a “7-star hotel” (whatever that is?) is a viable business proposition in a city which has seen a military operation and two bomb blasts in the last two months alone. Obviously, these minds are not familiar with the Ryugyong hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Some say it was with stars in their eyes (other suspect it was one of those Cold-War type reactions to news that a South Korean firm had just constructed the Westin Stamford Hotel in Singapore) that the North Korean Government decided to build the world’s largest and tallest hotel. Construction began in 1987 at an estimated cost of $750 million, or 2% of the country’s GDP (for comparison, 2% of the US GDP would be about $220 billion). Indeed, the Ryugyong hotel undertaking was a massive undertaking for such a poor country.

When the basic cement structure was erected, the building measured in at nearly 1,110 feet and boasted 3.9 million square feet of floor space. The scale of the North Korean government’s mistaken belief in its ability to fill it can be estimated by the fact that, while the hotel was built with more than 3,000 rooms, at the time it was constructed only several hundred tourists visited the country. Yet so great was their belief in the hotel that – just as the cover of the last Economic Survey published by the Government of Pakistan carried an artist’s rendition of The Centaurus – it issued postage stamps with the hotel printed on them before the structure was complete.

Tragically, construction was halted in 1992. The North Korean Government (with stars in its eyes) just ran out of money. The structure has never been certified safe for habitation and not even the windows have been installed. Attempts to draw investment to complete the project have not worked either (the North Korean government even announced it would allow developers to use the building as “casinos, nightclubs or Japanese lounges . . .” if they agreed to complete it. To no avail: the skeleton of the structure casts its shadow over all of Pyongyang. It can literally be seen from every corner of the city and is a constant decaying reminder to the hubris that built it. Even the postage stamps have been declared invalid.

The Centaurus project also bristles with a contagious hubris of its own. Perhaps it will cloud the view from the site to the slums off F-7. So far, it has managed to convince the powers that be that it is a step in some imaginary right direction. One can only pray that this centaurus becomes all it promises to be, for if it isn’t, it will sit there, fouling the skyline of Islamabad and waiting for a Zeus to put it out of its misery.