Many years ago when I was working for a big international chemicals company we had an important visit from the head office with some top officials whose main interest was in the working of our chemicals plant in the interior of Sindh.
After a long drive from Karachi we arrived at the plant and after some rest and refreshment started the tour of the facility. After the tour the head of the group suddenly requested to be taken to the spot where we release our contaminated water with residue chemicals.
This was at the back of the plant and the water which was quite colorful, given the different chemicals that were dissolved in it was disposed of in a small ravine whose water had also changed color as a result of our dumping our waste.
The delegation from the head office was quite perturbed and said this did not seem right.
Our officials were quite cool and said no this is just wilderness and nobody comes here so there will be no adverse effect. The visitors did not seem in agreement and were looking at each other when suddenly a caravan of camels appeared on the scene. Calmly, the man at the head of the caravan led the camels to the brink of the ravine and they started drinking that colored water. There was a horrified silence and the visitors looked at us accusingly.
The result of this misadventure was that our plant received a state of the art system at a cost of few million Euros to completely clean the waste water before it was dumped anywhere outside the plant.
This is the story of just one plant and one company that eventually lived up to its responsibility. All over Pakistan the story is truly horrifying.
Another trip during my tenure at this company and this time to Kasur. Before any details of the trip let us learn about Kasur itself. The city of Kasur is considered an industrial hub of Punjab. Pakistan’s most successful industries have a dominant presence in Kasur. With industrial growth comes environmental hazards and Kasur is no different.
Kasur produces more than 9 million liters of contaminated water and is considered as one of the most critically affected cities in terms of groundwater contamination. I have visited Kasur only once and my memory of the city is not exactly very pleasant and that is with reference to the environment.
We often hear of cities with very high number of pollutants in the air but physically you do not feel the effects very strongly. In Kasur it was quite different.
We reached there by about 10 in the morning and I was warned not to drink water from any other source except the water bottles provided by the company. With all the precautions taken I still developed a headache by noon and could feel the heaviness in the air.
We visited some industries as we were ourselves in Kasur to sell some newly introduced chemicals. All along the way to the different industries we would run into small ponds of colored water and to my horror herds of cattle including milk- giving cows and goats would be drinking from these ponds.
The incidence of cancer in Kasur I was told was at that time highest in the country. I don’t know what the situation is right now but I doubt if any significant improvement has been made either here or for that matter anywhere else in the country.
Why this sudden interest in pollution? Well this is the talk of the town with Lahore leading the way and our own city Karachi not very far behind.
For the first time I am hearing of serious consideration of artificial rain and every day there are steps being taken to somehow save the population of affected cities from the poisonous smog that envelops them and their dangerously exposed population.
Unfortunately, climatic abnormalities are neither created in a day or can be dealt with within twenty hours with stop gap arrangements. Only by serious long term and meaningful steps can we save our exposed and endangered population.
As the stories I have narrated demonstrate how we have slowly poisoned our cities and towns without blinking an eye lid it is now imperative that we dedicate ourselves to turning back the clock and at least restore the environment for our coming generations.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
The writer is a well-known columnist
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