The troubled waters of Anarkali
Food without water is unheard of till you reach a food street
By Naila Inayat
The Food Street in old Anarkali is representative of the glitz and glamour of the area, but very few know how the life of the residents on this road, called Rubani Road is affected by the shortage of water in the vicinity.

There is hardly a person who has more knowledge about Punjab than Iqbal Qaiser. Coming from a humble background, he could not afford formal education beyond matriculation but his thirst for knowledge kept him going outside the formal environment. He kept on studying and traveling to learn as much as he could about the land that he adores, and now his expertise in the field is such that he guides people doing Doctorate and Post-Doctorate through their thesis.

Iqbal Qaiser is a historian, anthropologist, poet, story writer, activist, etc. He also happens to be a prolific writer having adventured in numerous fields. What makes this man really special is his unrelenting commitment to Punjabi. Despite the fact that the readership of Punjabi is negligible, and being aware of the fact that one can’t expect to make a living at all by writing in Punjabi, this man continues to serve Punjabi. He says, he knows that if he writes in Urdu, his readership would improve tenfold and also his financial status but he wants to write in his own language. Who else would do it if he doesn’t, he says.

There is hardly any historical site in Punjab which he hasn’t visited or is not aware of. In his late 50s, Iqbal Qaiser is still not afraid to go out in the scorching summers of Punjab. Without a private conveyance, he travels on foot or public transport. With the amount of work that he has already done, one can only conjecture what he would have been able to do if he had the resources.

He is currently in the process of writing ‘A History of Lahore District’, which of course would be in Punjabi but would also be translated into English and in Gurmukhi script. This work of his is an encyclopedia of Lahore, having reached proportions, never even thought of earlier. Perhaps, the greatest contribution so far in noting down the history of Lahore is of Maulvi Nur Ahmad Chisti. This late 19th century work is a must in the library of any person who is interested in Lahore. This book is roughly of around 1000 pages. The Encyclopedia that Iqbal Qaiser is in the process of writing would be divided into five volumes, and each one would include roughly around 1000 pages. Comparing the work of these two scholars, the former would only appear as a shadow to the latter. However, this is not to take away the credit from Maulvi Nur Ahmad Chisti, whose work acted as a beacon of light for Iqbal Qaiser. No stone has been left unturned in the Lahore District. No neighborhood, no village, no personality, site has been spared. This contribution of Iqbal Qaiser would make him immortal in the annals of history.

Simultaneously he is also working on another book, which he would call ‘Historical Jain Shrines in Pakistan’. This would be a survey of all the extant Jain temples across Pakistan. This speaks in volumes about the dedication of a person. Not many people would dare to take such two projects simultaneously, however for Iqbal Qaiser this second project is a piece of cake in his own words.

‘Historical Jain shrines in Pakistan’ is inspired by his own earlier work which got him international acclaim and numerous awards. This book is called ‘Historical Sikh Shrines in Pakistan’. This book was published in 1998 in Punjabi with a rendition in English and Gurmukhi script. When he was writing this book, he was also a primary school teacher. He says he used to do his field work during the summer vacations. This book covers 175 important Sikh Gurdwaras all over the country, describing their present condition, locality and history. In the project, he has been able to achieve what the Department of Archaeology could not accomplish, even with all the funds.

‘Historical Sikh Shrines’ made Iqbal Qaiser from a parochial writer to an internationally recognised author. He was invited to America and Canada for book launching ceremonies. The Sikh community world over lauded his efforts and bestowed him with various titles and awards. The Punjab Times Gold Medal, Guru Nanak Award, Punjabi Saat Lamparada Award are just tip of the ice berg. He even got the honour to have lunch at the White House because of this book. The recognition that Pakistani Government gave him was harassment from ISI. Today at the Patiala University, a Ph.D programme is being offered on this book by the History Department.

With the money which he amassed from the sale of this book he bought a piece of land in Lalyani and opened a research institute there by the name of Punjabi Khojgarh. This is yet another effort to promote the cultures of Pakistan but things are not working smoothly for the institute at the moment, which is facing water and electricity issues because of shortage of funds but the struggle is going on.

Besides being a historian and anthropologist, Iqbal Qaiser also happens to be a Punjabi poet. Inspired by the Sufiyana kalam, Iqbal Qaiser has two collections of Punjabi poetry to his credit, one of which was given the Bulleh Shah Award by Majlis Bulleh Shah. During Zia’s Martial Law, he was sent to jail for having read one of his poems at a conference condemning the Martial Law. This poem was called ‘Aaj boodh dardiya boodh vai’. This poem was dedicated to Bhagat Singh on his death anniversary, 23rd of March when these people dared to organize a Bhagat Singh day.

Besides writing books and finding jobs to make a living, Iqbal Qaiser writes for Indian Punjabi newspapers Ajeet and Nawa Zamana. Unfortunately, here too he is not properly compensated for his efforts, as the newspapers are Indian and the governments don’t allow them to pay him. He prefers to write in Indian newspapers over Pakistanis because there is greater reverence for Punjabi there than here, where it has become a second if not third language.

Iqbal Qaiser is an inspiration for any person who wants to do something but believes that certain factors are holding him/her back. He teaches us to face all difficulties head on without fear through his persistence in doing what he wanted to do. Iqbal Qaiser says in one of his poems:

‘Kaal jithe se Baba muya

Mein utho he panda choya

Mein khure hun kithe marna

agla panda kine karna’.

‘Yesterday where our predecessors ended their journey

I have begun from there

Now I don’t know where my journey will end

And who would pick up the thread’.

harunkhalid@hotmail.com

The Food Street in old Anarkali is representative of the glitz and glamour of the area, but very few know how the life of the residents on this road, called Rubani Road is affected by the shortage of water in the vicinity.

How would one spend summer break with no water — yes, NO water at home? Apparently you can’t do anything. As I talk to the locals I realise how hard it can be to have to live without this basic necessity of life.

Inamullah and his wife Shabnam are sitting in the porch, "Yeh jo roti ki baat kartay hain humay pani tu abhi tak dey nahi sakay," says Inam. "It is very difficult for us to do household chores and with this kind of loadshedding things have worsened," says Shabnam.

This is not the only household on the Rubani Road facing these problems, many other families are suffering from water shortage. Kalsoom, mother of two, says, "I can’t do anything in the kitchen, not even cook, because the dirty water available is hazardous to health. We get the food from the bazaar and even that costs a lot." Kalsoom’s youngest son Ibrahim, is suffering from hepatitis C and she says it is due to the usage of this contaminated water that he has had hepatitis.

There are two water lines on the Rubani road. The old water line is unfiltered while the new line; five feet away from the area has been fixed by a private society. Residents complain that in order to get the new line connection they have to pay more and all they get in the end is a double connection.

"The problem is that whether you have the new line connection or the old one, purified water isn’t guaranteed. Now I have dual connection but without the motor I don’t have sufficient water at my place," says Haji Zahoor. So, these days Zahoor is dependent on his neighbour Badarul Hasan who provides him water for daily use. Hasan has a pump installed in his house that draws water for his use.

With the summer vacations having started, Mohammad Sadiq grumbles, "We just can’t even make the children understand the issues because they want to enjoy the vacations but here we are stuck with the no-water no-electricity scenario."

"You see the children are stranded because we don’t let them go out because of the security situation and even if they go for cricket, they come back all worn out and without water children can’t even take a bath," says Naseem. So much so that the residents use the government taps for drinking water.

"That is true, we take a long walk to the government coolers installed in mosques or elsewhere to drink water because it is so hot and one can’t stay without water for long," says Inamullah.

However, sub-divisional officer Wasa Usman Babar says, "Yes, we have been facing these problems due to the power outages but now Wasa has installed new generators and hopefully there won’t be any complaints from the residents."

The sewerage system in the area also causes problems for the locals. Haji Zahoor says that he cannot sit outside in the street because of the smelly environment due to the improper sewerage system.

Community initiative

Water and sanitation facilities are provided in large cities of Punjab by the Water and Sanitation Agencies (Wasa) whose focus is on the provision of pipes and hardware without integrating that with community needs.

Environment experts believe that community participation is for sustained provision of water and sanitation in urban areas. So, the performance of Wasa brings to the fore the need for communities in cities to participate through component sharing and decision making in the integrated water and sanitation projects.

An analytical study was commissioned by the Government of Punjab in 2007 to assess the capacity of the urban services provider including Wasa(s) in the province. The study highlighted serious capacity building issues in municipal service provider and concluded that the Wasa(s) only possessed some technical capacity. Management and leadership capacity was non-existent which was essential for integrated project planning and development discourse engagement with community. It also showed that only three percent of the staff in Wasa was qualified while 97 percent were unskilled or semi skilled.

Changa Pani Programme is a strategic initiative of the Government of Punjab through Urban Unit, Planning and Development Department in Partnership with City District Government Lahore, Wasa Lahore and Anjuman Samaji Behbood (ASB), a civil society organisation. Asghar Bhalli, director Wasa, Aziz Bhatti Town, Lahore says the purpose of the programme is to design and implement integrated water supply and sanitation project for poor community who have remained neglected so far.

"The project aims to provide efficient, reliable, affordable and environmentally sus tainable water and sanitation system in poor urban area of Badar Colony, UC 60, Lahore. The community has contributed 39 percent of the cost in the infrastructure and the rest is being funded by the Government of Punjab as an innovative project for policy learning and attainment of Millennium Development Goal." Asghar Bhalli tells TNS, in the start there were strong reservations among the staff for involving an NGO in public sector water project but the work done by ASB for community mobilisation is commendable.

ASB conducted a social survey of the area before the start of the project and found that sanitation facilities were missing plus the government was not supplying water here. There are around 3,000 households with more than 22,000 population in Badar Colony. Seventy three percent of the population here is illiterate while the data collected from the area showed that 37 to 42 percent adult and children fell sick in the last three months due to water and sanitation problems. Fifty eight percent of the community is not satisfied with the quality of water while 73 percent never boiled the water and only 5 percent knew the benefit of boiling water, the survey conducted by Anjuman Samaji Behbood revealed. The ASB with great effort succeeded in convincing the community to adopt component sharing policy for provision of the facilities and infrastructure in their community.

According to details the internal component of the project that includes the infrastructure in street (water supply pipes up to 3 inches, water meters, and sewerage pipes up to 9 inches) will be constructed by communities themselves while Wasa will have to contrast the external component that includes tube well, overhead tank, disposal system, treatment system including all the pipes required for the system to operate optimally. "Every household is spending Rs 5200 for the construction of internal component while on the other hand Punjab government so far has contributed around Rs 100 million. More than 90 percent of work done by Wasa has been completed while the community has also constructed more than 50 percent infrastructure on internal component," Nazir Ahmad Wattoo, chairman ASB tells TNS that so far around 750 households out of 3000 have contributed their share of Rs 5200 each to the project.

"We have conducted hundreds of session with the community to sensitise them on the very basic issue of hygiene. I am hopeful that in the next six months or so majority of 3000 households will pay their dues. This project is the first of its kind in Pakistan where water will be provided round the clock to the people," he tells TNS.

The majority of the residents of Badar Colony are hopeful and happy about the initiative. The streets in the colony were like swamps and one could not even find way to get out of these streets. Water borne diseases were very common and nobody was interested in buying property here but the situation has started changing now. Sewerage and water pipes have been laid down in most of the streets. Diseases are still there but affect less number of people. The price of property here has doubled during the last one year, after the project took off. Still there are many who are not happy with the fact that they are paying the price of internal component. "It is the duty of the government to provide basic civic amenities to its citizen. We already pay them a number of taxes and now Rs 5200 to get water and sanitation facility, it’s pathetic," says 35 years old Muhammad Ali of the same locality.