On providing sewage

Access to clean water and the provision of sanitation facilities are crucial elements of any habitat. However, in my experience, there is a disconnect — very few people understand the importance of water and sanitation.

In Pakistan, UNICEF estimates that less than 50 per cent of the rural population and about 15 per cent of the urban population have water connections (actual water access rates are thankfully higher and officially 66 per cent of the total population has access to pipe and hand-pump water). About 40 per cent of the urban population and less than 10 per cent of the rural population has access to sewerage. Again, access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation are elemental. These figures are unacceptable and inexcusable.

In Lahore, the entire city’s sewage is discharged, untreated, into River Ravi. It is estimated that nearly 800,000 kilograms of  biological oxygen demand pollution load is discharged into  Ravi every day. Given urbanisation and industrial growth, the pollution in the river can only increase. Industrial and domestic waste flowing in the river then join the irrigation waters heading for South Punjab.

The environmental and health effects of this pollution are immense. The Ravi can scarcely sustain any biological life and is dangerous for recreational purposes. The polluted irrigation water affects crops and the health of anyone unlucky enough to rely on it for drinking. And, as the river and irrigation waters flow, the pollutants they carry also seep into the aquifer, leading to more crop and health issues.

There is, perhaps, some solace in the knowledge that (i) we don’t have it as bad as others and (ii) something can be done.

The River Thames in London once carried the filth of the entire city’s discharge. It wasn’t until the Houses of Parliament was forced to scent its curtains (to counter the stench) that something was done. Even today, London is investing heavily in the Thames Tideway Scheme that will improve the capacity of its sewage system. The project will cost £3.6 billion and involves laying a sewage tunnel under the Thames. This is evidence of political commitment to sanitation facilities. London realises that it cannot even think of being a global city, unless it can provide Londoners the sanitation facilities they require.

The Cuyahoga River in Ohio, in northeastern United States, is another example of how rivers can be revived. Large quantities of untreated industrial effluents discharged into the river led to the river actually catching fire. In 1969, the last of the Cuyahoga’s 15 fires received widespread public attention and having awakened public consciousness, spurned an avalanche of water pollution control activities in the US, including the Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Large-scale public interventions, which included reforming school curriculums so that science and biology experiments would feed EPA research, have cleaned up vast tracts of the river. Though pollution has not been eliminated, the Cuyahoga is an example of public-private partnerships bringing environmental change. Political will and public awareness are crucial if pollution is to be tackled and access to clean water is to be achieved. In China, where environmental concerns remain, like Pakistan, subservient to development concerns, massive urbanisation and industrialisation has polluted the Yangtze to ‘cancerous’ levels.

In Lahore, there have been plans and proposals to deal with the sewage problem. Yet, four years into the present government, not a single sewage treatment plant has been commissioned. The reasons given are financial more than environmental. A sewage treatment plant for North Lahore that would treat about 30 per cent of the city’s effluent would cost billions to construct.  That is not the problem, however. The problem is, paying for its running costs and ensuring it has electricity.

But financial concerns should not trump environmental concerns.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has held that the right to a clean and healthy environment is the fundamental right of every Pakistani. This includes access to clean drinking water and sanitation. The Superior Courts of Pakistan (and also India) have repeatedly pointed out that lack of finances is no defence for a violation of fundamental rights. The question then is: Why hasn’t the government of Punjab prioritised sewage treatment over, say, the construction of roads and flyovers in Lahore? The answer lies in political will and also the awareness amongst people to demand what is rightfully theirs.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2012.