No Rocket Science

JULY 2003 - You cannot blame the people of Pakistan who look up at the heavens in great confusion every time the rains come down. Because every time that happens, every lane, street, road, avenue, boulevard – you name it, is flooded. As oceans of rain water mixed with sewage, last year’s debris and all manner of assorted goodies, flow about – or in some cases, simply sit there for weeks on end, the people are expected to cope with it. Somehow. The ritual of lies and promises continues year after year, but as mankind proceeds to travel to Mars and probably colonise it, we here in the subcontinent, continue to marvel at the advancement of science and technology and its application that leaves all of us bewildered.

Is this inability to drain out water or allow it to flow one of the greatest mysteries to figure in the lives of the people of the subcontinent? It would seem to be. Is it one of those things for which neither is there an explanation or cure, that it is almost like the will of God and when it happens, you have no choice but to stand in silence and accept it? It would seem to be. Whatever its nature may be there is simply no explanation other than willful incompetence and gross negligence on the part of what euphemistically are called, civic agencies. They are just as civic as hungry alligators would be on a Sunday afternoon, but in Pakistan since you can get away with anything, including anything, they too roll along merrily. The plight of the people who are drowned every summer regardless of who they voted for is on the cards the moment the month of June starts. Thereafter, a bunch of officials, start to make the headlines and the first warning of impending doom comes when they announce that adequate measures have been taken to combat the monsoons and the ‘flood situation.’ Flood, as we all know by bitter experience, is a situation here and it just gets more and more serious each year. While this, that and the other is inspected by a galaxy of the city’s leading lights, accompanied by hordes of officials and semi-officials, statements fly like dragon flies that every arrangement is in place. This is an annual ritual conducted with utmost sincerity and seriousness except that the script is the same and the play has always the same story line and the same ending. Just the actors change. Hardly have the first raindrops hit the pavement, when the floodgates of water pour out and before long, the city looks like a muddy lake of flotsam through which people wade about while 4-wheel drives rush through at Formula One speeds, spraying the less fortunate with rose-scented baths.

What prevents us from solving this apparently basic problem? Indifference, incompetence yes, but is it that while we have learnt the intricacies of surfing the net and doing a hundred other clever things, this business which is as old as the hills, continues to play havoc with us? There are many dimensions to why we are unable to build a system that can take care of rainwater effectively and quickly without wrecking our lives. There is no absence of technology. There are enough competent engineers – and they have always been there, who know precisely what requires to be done. These men have been and still are in positions of authority, yet for some unfathomable reason – either to remain securely anchored to their jobs or lacking the will and the courage to fight for what they know is right, remain silent spectators while their superiors blunder about and initiate, approve and implement plans that are doomed to fail. In Pakistan’s public life, there has never been any shortage of the ubiquitous groveling civil servant who is too happy to go along with whatever harebrained scheme that is being churned out. Those rare ones who stand up and fight are converted at the touch of a magic wand to OSDs and other social undesirables and left to rot in a state of limbo while the circus of clowns moves on.

Take Lahore’s case. There have been any number of good, comprehensive and practical plans that were designed to build a fool proof drainage system, yet it has not happened. Not because the technical input was missing. There is solid evidence that there was plenty of this. Not because the money was not there. There has been huge funding again and again. The World Bank sank in millions. So have others. The government’s blown a packet. Yet, the city cannot rid itself of rainwater. What prevents officials – and sometimes there have been genuine, public-spirited people who have actually wanted to change things, make them better, from doing the possible? Sometimes it has been the case of the wrong people being in the right place. When the FWO was on a crusade led by Shahbaz Sharif, the matter of drainage was very much on the cards since Lahore’s roads were undergoing a facelift – never mind that making a traffic-congested road wider doesn’t necessarily make the traffic better, but while it was in the knowledge of the FWO that the drainage underway was never going to work, they merely acquiesced and went along with the orders of the day. We got plush new boulevards, but the drainage stinks and will stink. Those who made the roads and had their two minutes of glory are long gone except that we are living with the leftovers. It is reported that even as it is, given a few areas that defy solution, Lahore has an adequate drainage system and it does not require rocket science to make it work.

The underground drainage system remains choked throughout the year, simply because throughout the year, we throw trash without fail and let it find its way to wherever it may go. If a massive cleaning operation is conducted of this system, a month before the rains are due – and we all know when they are coming, there is reasonable hope that most of the lakes that you see, will simply not be there. Can this major scientific endeavour ever take place? Unlikely. Why maintain what you have? What have we ever maintained? We are not people who preserve things. The only thing we understand is to destroy, plunder, decimate and move along burping at regular intervals. If you don’t have the mini-drainage system in your house cleaned once a year, you know very well that it will choke. Multiply the scale and you have the problem. Secondly, a great deal of drainage has been laid with willful mis-intent. Those who have done so, are gone, but this flawed system wherever it exists needs to be rectified. Leaving it where it is will never work. Hoping that some miracle will make it work is stupid. Couldn’t care less because making a flawed thing better doesn’t generate good PR mileage? That may be more like it. Who will do it? There are good, professional and experienced men available. Those who are in power and do not have the technical knowledge must listen to them and evaluate their recommendations, whether these coincide with their views or not – then implement them. This is not easy to do when dealing with the brass because they always know what’s best, but with some civilian structure in place, it can happen.

Lastly, someone suggested that Lahore has a sandy soil because the Ravi used to extend to Kana and therefore below our soil exists the finest sad bed. If engineers can plan development keeping this in mind, there would be no need to invest billions in drains everywhere – rather we should use natural drainage which will work provided we adapt our building exercises to work with nature in tandem, not on a collision course. If you don’t believe it, dig a 6-inch hole 10-15 feet deep in your front lawn and push down a perforated pipe. Cover it. When the rains come, open the cover. Watch what happens to the rainwater. “Elementary my dear Watson,” as Holmes put it.