Cut back on consuming: ‘Recycle your AC water, spend Rs3,000 on saving mangroves and your environment’

People ignore environmental impact assessment meetings on major development projects.

KARACHI:

The spread of the mangroves on Sindh’s coastal belt has shrunk to 41,000 hectares from nearly 600,000 hectares in 1980 as the flow of the Indus River has gradually gone down and seawater has flowed back up the channel.

“As a matter of fact, seawater has intruded 54 kilometres into the land, destroying marine life and displacing communities,” said Tariq Qureshi, a representative of the IUCN at a seminar organised by the Amateur Gardeners Club on Saturday. “If we don’t do something now, sea intrusion will reach Kotri Barrage. The river is all sea at Thatta.”

The mangroves are being sacrificed for concrete. “We are told that [they are] cutting trees to construct terminals,” Qureshi said. “I am not against development but the environment can be preserved as well.”

Saving the mangroves is not expensive. By spending just Rs3,000 you can plant mangroves on one hectare.

Four different types of mangrove trees exist along the coastal belt. The ones that grow on the edge of creeks where river water meets the sea, work as a natural wall against water-logging. In 1955, around 79 million acre feet of water was flowing into the sea. It has now dropped to under 10 MAF. It is small wonder then that Qureshi remarked that fighting for our mangroves has become the fight of just a few people. “We fail to see the consequences because of our lack of interest. But soon it will hit us all.”

Indeed, a European panel on climate change ranked Pakistan as the country most affected by changing weather patterns in 2010, said Roland deSouza, a member of NGO Shehri.

“When it comes to the environment, it is the individual’s act that matters,” he said. “Studies have proven that humans are consuming more than they ever had. This is taking a toll on everything around us.”

He regretted that people don’t take interest in saving the ecosystem. “Less than one per cent of the Pakistani population has graduated from college. So the 99 per cent are too busy struggling for survival.”

People must attend the environmental impact assessment meetings held on major development projects, he urged. “Join the protests, come out and raise your voice.”

Little things matter, said Khilat Kafeel, a landscaping expert. “Collect the water coming out of air conditioners. It has fresh nitrogen, something very good for the plants and as good as rainwater.”

Because of its mild weather, she said planting a tree in Karachi is easier than in Lahore. “But please remember just having a lawn does not mean you have a garden, which is made up of properly maintained plants and trees.”

The new architects designing homes in the city have adopted the idea of taking plants inside the houses and even into the washrooms, she said. “In the end, it looks good,” she said.

One thing that people, especially those living in Defence, have not paid heed too is the conservation of water, she said. “What is the need to buy an extra water tanker when a washroom’s waste can be recycled to water the plants?”

A simple three-step recycling tank, which has pebbles to stop solid waste, can help reuse bathroom water, Kafeel said. “Of course I won’t advise you to use a sprinkling system in this case.”

Of the hundred people who attended the seminar, there was just one young girl who turned up in her school uniform. All the other members of the audience were well over 50 years old.

While deSouza’s speech drew a loud round of applause, the overconsumption at the club where the seminar was held was obvious. The air-conditioning had been on for hours in anticipation of the guests, an employee said. To raise the room temperature, the doors of the lobby were opened up, but the air conditioners were not turned off.

Outside the club, on both sides of the road, the cars of members of the audience were parked - most of them had 1800cc engines.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2011.