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Potable and affordable Street vendors of potable water are doing for the Lahorites what WASA has failed to do — supply clean and safe drinking water at nominal rates By Haroon Akram Gill On a random visit to the Hall Road, you are most likely to come across a youth plying a cart on the road, loaded with containers of blue or green colour. Ask him what he is carrying and you’ll know it is “pure drinking water.” Middle-aged motorcycle-rickshaw drivers carrying similar containers are a commoner sight. These vendors of potable water are doing for the Lahorites what WASA has failed to do — supply clean and safe drinking water, at the nominal rate of Rs1.5 per litre. TNS learns from sources that the water level in the city is 120-130 feet and the water available at this level contains chemicals and Arsenic. The water supplied by WASA to different areas is also contaminated. Everyone’s
heard the word ‘distinction’ Town
Talk Revisiting
Potable and affordable Street vendors of potable water are doing for the Lahorites what WASA has failed to do — supply clean and safe drinking water at nominal rates By Haroon Akram Gill On a random
visit to the Hall Road, you are most likely to come across a youth plying
a cart on the road, loaded with containers of blue or green colour. Ask
him what he is carrying and you’ll know it is “pure drinking water.”
Middle-aged motorcycle-rickshaw drivers carrying similar containers are a
commoner sight. These vendors of potable water are doing for the Lahorites
what WASA has failed to do — supply clean and safe drinking water, at
the nominal rate of Rs1.5 per litre. TNS learns from sources
that the water level in the city is 120-130 feet and the water available
at this level contains chemicals and Arsenic. The water supplied by WASA
to different areas is also contaminated. Additionally, the water
supply lines are very old and rusty. At some places these have been laid
side by side with the sewerage lines, with the result that the drinking
water sometimes gets mixed with the sewerage water which has a higher
pressure compared to the municipal supply water which has a low pressure. This life-threatening
issue has given rise to the ‘business’ of supplying potable water (as
claimed by the suppliers) to areas in and around Lahore where it is
difficult to find clean, drinking water. Their rates are also low compared
to what most large companies working in the field are charging for their
product because they have license and a brand name. Thirty-five years old
Ehsanullah Khan from Swabi runs such a business in Lahore at Tagore Park.
His product has an interesting brand name, ‘Aab-e-Shifa Sea Green.’ Ehsanullah claims to be
supplying water “at a very affordable price” to the residents of
Tagore Park, the traders of Mcleod Road, Brandreth Road and Hall Road. A number of small water
filtration plants have come up over the past few years; they are doing
quite well in areas around the city. “We follow the health
standards,” Ehsanullah tells TNS. “Our filtration plant is cleaned on
a daily basis. We do not store water for the following day. It is also
sterilised to make it bacteria-free.” Ehsanullah’s water
filtration plant consists of three processors and the same number of
filters with two large water tanks, one for the water coming from a WASA
supply line and the other for storing the processed water. “We provide
safe drinking water which is chilled as well. That is why it is
cost-effective.” According to him, the
average daily consumption in the said areas is 150-200 bottles which
doubles during the summer season. Young Jahandad Khan has
his unit in Dhobi Mandi, Purani Anarkali. It covers the localities of
Anarkali, Dhobi Mandi, Nabha Road, High Court and Jain Mandir. The manager
of the unit Nasarullah Khan says there is no need of a license in setting
up such plants at a commercial level. “We’ve got a commercial
connection from WASA and we pay our electricity bills. No government
agency from any department has questioned us ever in the last almost three
years. The only government people who visited us were the Anti Dengue
Larva team.” Shahzad Anwar, 43, who
has installed a water purification unit near Islamia High School, Sant
Nagar, claims that the international standards of accuracy are met at the
said plant. “It has cost us almost half a million rupees to install a
Reverse Osmosis Water Purification plant. We claim to be providing
purified water at the standard of 160TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) whereas
the water routinely available in the area has 350TDS which is why it is
not drinkable.” Shahzad is smiling all
the way to the bank as some of the country’s largest brands in the
business are now his customers. On the other hand, the
consumers of this water have their reasons. Muhamamd Amir says, “Even
though there is a municipal water supply connection at our home, it gives
water which is bitter in taste and causes sickness. The one I purchase
[from the plant] is better and richer in taste.” A trader at Mcleod Road
voices a similar concern, “Every market has a water tank and a municipal
water supply connection, but neither the water is clean safe nor does the
plaza management take care of the water tanks. That is why we purchase
drinking water though it is a burden on our budget.” For Outfall Road dweller
Mrs Waqas, a housewife, the “municipal water can be used for washing-up
but not for drinking purposes.” She admits that it
impacts the home budget but “it is still better to spend an extra few
bucks on your health than to have to pay your medical emergency bills that
shall be incurred thereof.” Mir Muhammad Akram, a
veteran trader of water pumps, turbines and filtration plants, says that
it costs an average household in Lahore Rs150,000-200,000 to avail
drinking water. This is because the water available at the said 120-130ft
has so many elements which make it harmful for drinking. “We recommend a
250-foot installation of pipes and then another 20 feet to dip the filter
with installation of submersible pumps to acquire clean drinking water,”
he says. It may be mentioned here
that WASA has installed water filter plants in different parts of the
city. Each plant is said to cost Rs2 million whereas the market price of
the same varies between Rs200,000-400,000. According to the Deputy
Managing Director, WASA, Aftab Ahmad, 85 plants have been installed at
different locations and they would be sufficient to cater to the demand of
Arsenic-free water to the whole city. He further reveals that
these filtration plants are installed to purge the water of Arsenic as its
amount increases with the depth in water level. Aftab Ahmad also speaks
of WASA tube wells extracting water from as deep as 700 feet. “These
filtration plants are remote-controlled and being monitored from our
office. There is no need to deploy an HR to look after the plants as an
automatic cleaning system starts working every 45 minutes.”
It’s September
now and most students aren’t waiting for exam results. The countdown to
result day is over and done with, the shrieks of joy are mere echoes in
the students’ memories and the tears have dried. An exclusive group of
students in private schools have a longer wait than the rest. They are
aspiring for higher heights than the As or A*s — the Outstanding
Cambridge Learner Award. Their official name isn’t well known but
everyone’s heard the word ‘distinction’; it elicits awe. It is
awarded to students who score the highest marks in a particular subject
across their city, country or the ‘world’ (a misnomer for the O’ and
A’level exams held in select countries). Here’s how it works.
More than half a year after the exams are conducted, the schools receive a
rather unimpressive looking printout which has the name of the student
along with the subject and the region he/she has excelled in. The news
naturally spreads like wildfire in the classes and staff rooms — the
student is touted to be a genius while the teachers revel in the praise
they receive for their efforts. CIE (Cambridge
International Examinations) contributes to the mysterious aura around the
whole affair by never revealing the exact date when the awards will be
announced — it was early January for the May/June 2011 session but the
end of February for the May/ June 2012 session. The internet is full of
discussion forums in which students wonder when the awards will be
announced, with all discussions ending at a dead end. While it seems very
glorious, these awards are perhaps the most arbitrary standards of judging
academic ability. A single mark could be the difference between the paper
of a student who got the distinction and one who got a measly A*. Furthermore, a
distinction doesn’t just depend on a lone student’s efforts but those
of his peers — one has to hope that the rest do horribly, too — not
exactly the best mind-set to encourage. Sometimes, if a large number of
students has received the highest marks in the same subject, CIE withholds
the distinction altogether. But despite this, the
students long to bag these awards. In fact, some of the private schools
isolate promising students and provide them with extra tutoring so that
the school’s name makes it to the list. Teachers also long to
come across a student who will glorify their name — advertisements for
tuition centres in our newspapers mention how many high achievers a
teacher has produced. And, so on. The concept of these
awards is an interesting one to analyse. While it exponentially increases
the pressure on bright students, it also recognises them. After all, if
these awards didn’t exist, there would be no way of differentiating an
A* at 90 percent from one at 100 percent. Still, the
differentiation is too narrow to really make a difference to most students
— a non distinction holder may be within hair breadth of the award or at
the end of the totem pole with 90 percent. Maybe the CIE needs to
reintroduce their policy of announcing percentages and abandon the high
achiever awards. This way, everyone, including the universities, will know
exactly how assured or border-line the grade attained was. What could be
better than pinpointing exactly where the student stands?
* Lok Rahs Performing
Arts Festival 2013, a three-day event by Punjab Lok Rahs, ends Sunday
(today) at the National College of Arts (NCA). Time: 6pm. The festival
includes folk theatre, dance, musical performances and a photo exhibition.
* ‘Social Pagal’,
Dramaducation’s latest theatrical presentation, opens Sep 23 at Alhamra,
Hall II, The Mall. Time: 6pm. Written and
directed by Shah Fahad —
earlier credits include Akkar Bakkar and Brain Masala — ‘Social Pagal’
will be performed till Sep 27. It is said to be a
“comedy, tragedy and social absurdism” that has already won the Best
Play at LUMS Dramafest 2011. The proceeds from the
tickets shall go to Shaukat Khanum Memorial
Trust. * ‘Lal Ki Sada,’ an
exhibition of paintings by Ali Abbas, continues
at Ejaz Art Gallery through
Sep 29. * ‘Sher Ki Baat,’ a
session with Dr Arfa Sayeda on ‘Faiz: Understanding Poetry,’ at Faiz Ghar, on September 25. Time:
6pm to 7pm.
film The 5th edition
of the International Children’s Film Festival (ICFF)that ended Saturday
night at Alhamra, The Mall, managed to capture the imagination of the
young with an array of 94-odd films from over 20 countries, including 13
from Pakistan. The films showcased
lands of imaginary warriors, swashbuckling heroes, garish costumes,
gallant acts of love and friendship, bizarre happenings, tales of kings
and princes as well as ordinary people — these and a lot more. The
formats varied too — there were feature films, shorts, live action and
animated documentaries. The crowds that turned
up at Alhamra during the five-day festival seemed all upbeat about the
kind of movies that were lined up for each day. The entire venue had been
decked up with buntings and streamers. Besides, there were stalls of kids
related activities that kept the children busy throughout. Organised by The Little
Art, the ICFF had worked well to select the movies with the help of a
distinguished jury comprising renowned film makers and academics such as
Asghar Nadeem Syed, Nisar Malik, Imran Babur, Samar Minallah and Armughan
Hassan. “The festival has
grown exponentially over the years,” remarked the Festival Director
Shoaib Iqbal, talking to TNS on the occasion. He added that the current
year’s event had been made possible with support from the Government of
Punjab which “ensured security for the visitors. Walking into the hall
packed to capacity was a pleasant surprise. It became even better when one
realised that the audience consisting chiefly of children was clad in
their school uniforms. They were enjoying a French movie with English
subtitles. It was about the protagonist’s journey from the Egyptian
desert to the modern city of Paris. Iman Ashraf, a Grade 8
student in Sanjay Nagar School, seemed overjoyed: “It was very
emotional,” she said. “We learnt to help and care for others.” Zainab Afzal from
Beaconhouse liked the movie because “it was a love story.” A prominent feature film
on day two turned out to be quite thought-provoking. Titled Colored
Pencils, it was a Brazilian production and revolved around a boy who loves
to draw. Unlike the previous
years, the International Children’s Film Festival 2013 was better
managed and the movies were selected in assorted age-specific categories.
“I can see the improvement as I’ve brought my children here in the
earlier festivals too,” said Zonera, a mother of three. Language was perhaps the
one major obstacle in the way of comprehending most foreign movies. The
parents accompanying the kids were found to express their unease at the
screening of a German film, Stoneflies. Their main point was that the
subtitles were difficult to keep track of. For others, the
“subtitles aren’t a problem at all. You can make sense of what is
being shown on screen,” said Mustafa from Beaconhouse Newlands. At this year’s
festival, the contribution from Pakistan was considerable and the
audiences were making a beeline for the box office asking for reservations
for local films which had been produced by the students of Aitchison, BNU,
NCA and others. “It took us a year to
shortlist from the entries [from all over the world],” Shoaib Iqbal
said. “We are now an international event.” The locally produced
films included Bubble directed by Mehak Fatima, Guddu Ki Guddi by Madiha
Jamil and Saleha Alvi both of which saw full houses. Amar Khan’s Azad
Masih, meant for the above-18 audience, had a very strong message of
discrimination against the minorities in Pakistan. It highlighted the
narrow prejudices that have become entrenched in our minds due to sheer
ignorance. “The movie enlightens
the students about a peaceful coexistence. It’s a topic which is very
relevant to the troubled scenario of our country,” said Rukhsana Ahmed,
a local school teacher who had come with her class. Mariam Shakeel, a Grade
6 teacher at Beaconhouse Newlands, believed otherwise: “The movies were
too long and, to be honest, I don’t think the students would have
enjoyed them if they had come on their own.” The festival was well
arranged and publicised and most of the students were able to come to the
event because their schools had arranged the trip. Eventually, the idea of
The Little Art to collaborate with schools should be commended. The
organisers also took pride in inviting students from low-income
backgrounds and shelter homes. Shows were booked in advance free of cost
and transport was provided to schools such as Progressive Education
Network, Rising Sun Institute and Al Mashal.
Revisiting
The recurring
mention of the Pak Tea House, in one way or the other, in renowned writer
(late) A. Hameed’s memoirs about Lahore underlines the importance of the
place in the literary and cultural life of the city. The place has been
the pivot of literary activities and a ‘community centre’ for the
literati since 1940. Renovated and reopened, it traces its origin to 1948,
the year inscribed on its façade, perhaps another attempt of the
government officials to distort history. However, two Sikh
brothers started the India Tea House in 1940 which later became the Pak
Tea House after the Partition when another pair of brothers, Siraj and
Alim, immigrants from India were allotted the place. A. Hameed writes that
years after the Partition, Siraj saw a Sikh standing outside the tea
house, looking sadly at the place and when he was called in, he revealed
that he used to own the place before the fateful Partition. The place became a
favourite haunt of writers like A Hameed, Ashfaq Ahmed, Ahmed Rahi, Munir
Niazi, Anjum Roomani, Qayyum Nazar, Nasir Kazmi, Ibne Insha, Saadat Hasan
Manto and painters like Shakir Ali and Anwar Jalal Shemza along with
singers like Amanat Ali Khan. Many of these people belonged to East Punjab
and they were forced to leave their homes after the Partition so they
shared the newly received pangs of the displacement. A Hameed says that
one day Nasir Kazmi while sitting in the tea house told him how he had set
all his pigeons free before fleeing Amritsar which, when he set a last
glance at his house, had returned back to the home, unlike him. A Hameed and Shemza, who
lived on Beaden Road, used to have their first “half-set” tea of the
day at the tea house. The tea house used to have a radio set and facility
of the phone, where some girls used to call Hameed who had made Siraj’ s
brother Alim his confidante in his affairs to help him talk to girls. Intizar Hussain, in his
memoirs Chiraghon Ka Dhuan, also reminisces about Pak Tea House,
describing how Nasir Kazmi, A Hameed and Ahmed Mushtaq and he used to
spend their evenings there before having their night walk on The Mall.
Actor Kamal Ahmed Rizvi was also a frequent visitor of the place during
his early career as a struggling actor when he used to do children
theatre. In one of his interviews, he talks about a time when he had no
money and the famous Shakir Ali would offer him tea and cake as free
breakfast at the tea house almost on a daily basis. The government spent
more than Rs 8 million to renovate the Pak Tea House and reopened it in
March this year. The question arises whether the place will attract
literati as it used to in its glorious past or it will serve just as an
ordinary eatery. Intizar Hussain thinks that the old lovers of the tea
house are gone and the place will have to find new lovers. He thinks that
the city as well as the circumstances have drastically changed. Short story writer and
critic Dr Mirza Hamid Baig says he started visiting the tea house in
1970/71 when he was a student at the Oriental College. He thinks “it’s
not right to look for the old Pak Tea House and it’s useless to expect
anything like that”, saying that people who frequented the tea house
earlier, like Zahid Dar, Sohail Ahmed and Ahmed Mushtaq used to live
nearby and it was easy for them to visit the place daily. Besides, he
says, “The city has sprawled too much. The Mall is no more its central
point like it used to be four, five decades back and it did not have
issues like traffic and moving around was easier”.
He complains that the tea house does not have a proper parking
facility which it did not need some decades back and that he wants to
visit the place frequently but the traffic mess around The Mall prevents
him from, doing so. Baig further says that
when he was a student, teachers of literature in Oriental College and
Government College used to visit the tea house while they also urged their
students to visit the place. He says that now such institutes don’t have
either teachers or students of
that caliber, “Oriental College and GC used to produce
creative minds who used to go to places like the tea house.” He
adds bemoaning the loss of that tradition now. Abdul Waheed, secretary
general of the Progressive Writers Association, Lahore, has a different
view. He says that the progressive writers have been having their weekly
meeting at the Pak Tea House, adding that they had shifted to the tea
house from Choupal, Nasser Bagh, when the tea house reopened. He says
“dozens of people, mostly young lovers of literature and students from
Oriental College and GCU, who have an urge to learn, attend every session
of the progressive writers meeting at the tea house.” Waheed complains that
senior writers are not willing to come there and train the young minds as
they used to do at the Pak Tea House in the past. He says, “Senior
writers should play their role, otherwise, the tea house would not serve
its real purpose and will become a mere dating point for young people.” He says that other
groups of writers like Pakistan Writers Forum of Dr Zia Hassan and Amjad
Tufail from the MAO also hold their regular meetings at the tea house. A group of students from
the GCU said that they used to go to Nairang Art Gallery but since the
reopening of the tea house, they regularly visit the place. Kashif Fayyaz
from the Urdu department of the GCU says that if the tea house produces
one writer every few years, its purpose will be served. He terms it “a
blessing to have such a place on The Mall and they don’t have to go far
away to having a literary sitting.” The real objective of
the reopening of the Pak Tea House will be achieved only if both the young
as well as old generations of writers and students visit it. It a place
which has, once again, given a chance to the senior writers to pass on
their knowledge to the younger generations and they should not let it go
waste. The young writers and literature enthusiasts should also visit the
place to learn something substantial and sharing of ideas instead of
wasting time on mostly substandard literary activity on social media.
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